Kobe, vicinity mark 15th anniversary of Great Hanshin Quake

KOBE, Jan. 17 Kyodo -
The western port city of Kobe and neighboring cities that were devastated in
the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake commemorated Sunday the 15th anniversary of
the disaster that claimed 6,434 lives.
Prayers continued throughout the day, with people gathering before dawn in a
park located in the center of Kobe to light thousands of bamboo lanterns in the
shape of ''1995'' and ''1.17'' and to offer silent prayers at 5:46 a.m., the
time the magnitude 7.3 quake hit the city.
Kiyomi Mabuchi, 53, whose husband and in-laws were killed after their house
collapsed in the earthquake, came from Tokushima Prefecture to mourn at
Higashi-Yuenchi Park, while her 30-year-old son, born on Jan. 17, stayed at
home this time.
''People say it's been 15 years, but whether it's 15 or 20 years, our feelings
do not change,'' she said.
Wearing a necklace that her husband was wearing at the time of his death,
Mabuchi said, ''My heart may never recover.''
Some kneeled before the lanterns to pray while others stood and cried in the
park that was full of people during the countdown to the time the quake struck.
About 8,000 people took part in a city-hosted ceremony held in the park shortly
after the prayers.
A powerful quake that hit Haiti last week was also a focus of attention at the
memorial events, with members of the imperial family, government officials and
bereaved relatives expressing their concern for the devastated Caribbean
country.
''Marking the 15th anniversary of the Great Hanshin Earthquake, I would like to
express my deep condolences for the around 6,400 people that were killed,''
Crown Prince Naruhito said at a ceremony hosted by Hyogo Prefecture, held
shortly before noon attended by around 400 people, before referring to reports
about the serious situation in Haiti.
''I would like to express my sympathy for the victims and their families and
hope they will recover from the disaster soon,'' he said.
The crown prince was accompanied by Crown Princess Masako, on her first
official trip outside of the capital involving an overnight stay since January
2008.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who attended the same ceremony, the first prime
minister to do so in a decade, said, ''Politics play a big role in protecting
human lives'' and promised to ''implement further comprehensive disaster
management measures and put full efforts into enabling the Japanese people to
lead their lives feeling secure.''
Among those who mourned, Junji Yamashita, an elementary school vice-principal
who lost his parents in the quake, came to the memorial site at the park, which
he started visiting nine years ago after deciding he had to deal with the
experience before he could teach his young students about it.
The 48-year-old used to teach at a Japanese school in Tehran and collected
donations at his school when a major earthquake hit Bam, Iran, in 2003. The
school gave a total of around 250,000 yen to a local aid worker who later
established a care home for young quake victims.
He said he had told his students a few days earlier that other countries helped
Kobe to recover and the students responded, ''We have to take action'' over the
earthquake that devastated Haiti last week.
The 15th anniversary also highlighted a number of unresolved issues including
quake survivors who sustained serious injuries and became handicapped as a
result.
A group of disabled people, including a man suffering from crush syndrome and a
girl with cerebral damage, said they had long been unable to express their
suffering as they were considered lucky to have survived the quake and that
they had been overlooked by authorities that assumed existing support systems
were sufficient to cover their needs.
They handed a letter calling on Kobe Mayor Tatsuo Yada, following the memorial
ceremony at Higashi-Yuenchi Park, to improve their living conditions by setting
up an inquiry counter among other measures.
Various memorial events were held throughout the city and other parts of Hyogo
Prefecture, allowing people to offer flowers, post their messages on the
disaster in front of office buildings and to sign condolence books.
A record number of around 6,000 people took part in a memorial walk covering
streets in some of the hardest hit areas like Kobe's Nagata Ward, with the
longest course extending 15 kilometers. The number of participants was 4,200 in
the previous year, according to the organizers.
Free food and drink were handed out at the ceremonies and events, just as
people had done at the time of the earthquake.
In a city-hosted memorial ceremony in the morning, Kobe Mayor Yada reminded
people to pass on their memories.
''I feel the importance of preventing the memories of the earthquake from
fading and of relating them to the next generation of children who do not know
about the earthquake,'' he said.
Gospel singer Yuri Mori, who lost her younger brother in the Great Hanshin
quake, sang a song written by an elementary school teacher in 1995 to wish for
the recovery for the city.
Mori had said she would sing the song, ''Shiawase Hakoberu yo ni'' (To Carry
Happiness), so that she could bring happiness not just to her deceased brother
Wataru, a 22-year-old university student, but to all the victims and survivors
of the disaster.
The song has been sung at many commemorative ceremonies and in other cities,
according to the Hyogo prefectural government.
Kiyoshi Matsuura, a 56-year-old resident of Kobe, whose 16-year-old son and a
24-year-old Australian English teacher on a home-stay were killed in his house,
gave a speech on behalf of the bereaved families at a prefectural memorial
ceremony.
''We survivors will eventually join (the dead), and we promise that we will
cherish our lives each day until that time comes so that we can tell you (the
dead) that we have lived our lives fully,'' he said.
Prayers continued until the evening, with candles lit in the shape of
''Nagata'' in Japanese characters at Shin-Nagata Station. The noise in the
bustling area died down when a gathering of several hundred people offered
silent prayers at 5:46 p.m.
==Kyodo