On the unforgettable day
Jan. 17th, 2020 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katriona_s17th Jan.
A quarter of a century ago, in the early morning on this day, near Kobe (near Osaka) there was a massive earthquake - Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake. As the first big earthquake which hit the modern big city in Japan it killed nearly 6,500 people, destroyed wide areas -houses and other big buildings, road, railway etc and triggered many very severe fires. Since then 25 years has passed, we have had many other natural disasters including the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami(2011), and the society and our lives have so much changed. The internet and personal computers, smartphones and SNS. In 1995 we haven't had those things. So on that day, 17th Jan 1995, here in Yokohama we all knew there has been a big earthquake in the morning in the west part of Japan but had no idea how terrible its damage was and went to the office as usual. I remember when I and my co-workers have come back to the office from outing and found all the people in the office watching TV program reporting the damage in Kobe, horrible images of massive fire burning the whole town on TV screen.
It was when we keenly noticed the fact that our daily life could be destroyed anytime even in this modern world. And since then there have been many tragedies telling us the same merciless fact.
Still our life goes on, the Kobe town was restored and the surviving children and babies have grown up. Today in Kobe and other nearby cities they have various kind of "memorial" events, I can see many articles and images about them on TV, newspapers and internet.
This is the day when we all think about the fragility and the value of our life, thank for the current peace. But could we be able to keep this transient peaceful life? If the mother nature can destroy us anytime should we be ready for that ordeal and go with other people - people from different countries or different cultures - side by side to learn and understand each other, and help each other when the time comes? Not hating , insulting and attacking each other?
A quarter of a century ago, in the early morning on this day, near Kobe (near Osaka) there was a massive earthquake - Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake. As the first big earthquake which hit the modern big city in Japan it killed nearly 6,500 people, destroyed wide areas -houses and other big buildings, road, railway etc and triggered many very severe fires. Since then 25 years has passed, we have had many other natural disasters including the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami(2011), and the society and our lives have so much changed. The internet and personal computers, smartphones and SNS. In 1995 we haven't had those things. So on that day, 17th Jan 1995, here in Yokohama we all knew there has been a big earthquake in the morning in the west part of Japan but had no idea how terrible its damage was and went to the office as usual. I remember when I and my co-workers have come back to the office from outing and found all the people in the office watching TV program reporting the damage in Kobe, horrible images of massive fire burning the whole town on TV screen.
It was when we keenly noticed the fact that our daily life could be destroyed anytime even in this modern world. And since then there have been many tragedies telling us the same merciless fact.
Still our life goes on, the Kobe town was restored and the surviving children and babies have grown up. Today in Kobe and other nearby cities they have various kind of "memorial" events, I can see many articles and images about them on TV, newspapers and internet.
This is the day when we all think about the fragility and the value of our life, thank for the current peace. But could we be able to keep this transient peaceful life? If the mother nature can destroy us anytime should we be ready for that ordeal and go with other people - people from different countries or different cultures - side by side to learn and understand each other, and help each other when the time comes? Not hating , insulting and attacking each other?