A woman prays during a candlelight vigil in Kobe.

A plethora of commemorations testified to the depth of the 1995 tragedy: Hundreds of tearful survivors held a candlelight vigil at the time of the pre-dawn quake at 5:46 a.m., illuminating the form of the date, 1.17; students sang memorial songs about the catastrophe; rafts of dignitaries, including Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, filed into ceremonies organized by local authorities.

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko take part in a memorial ceremony.

The Asian tsunami disaster loomed large over the anniversary. Many people said seeing the damage on television brought back harsh memories of their tragedy; others saw the common links between all victims of natural disasters. For others, the tsunami disaster demonstrated how much worse the quake could have been.

Still, the human and material tolls of the quake were astounding: 6,433 were killed in a city that many thought was in an area largely immune to earthquakes, and 43,792 were injured. Hundreds of thousands of buildings were damaged, and the overall cost totaled some ¥10 trillion.

The Japan Times Weekly: Jan. 22, 2005
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