Scars Remain a Decade After Japan's Kobe Earthquake

[Captain Japan]

Scars Remain a Decade After Japan's Kobe Earthquake
Reuters

KOBE, Japan (Reuters) - As Takako Usui watched the terrifying images of the tsunami ravaging Indian Ocean shorelines, memories flooded back of the cold January morning 10 years ago when a killer earthquake devastated her home city.

"When I saw the news of the tsunami, I remembered how scary it was and I thought how frightening nature is," said Usui, 63, whose Kobe home was destroyed by the quake and subsequent fires.

"People are powerless to withstand it."

The 7.3-magnitude earthquake hit western Japan at 5:46 a.m. on Jan. 17, 1995, killing 6,433 people, forcing more than 300,000 to take refuge, destroying homes, factories, roads and railways. Total damage was estimated at 10 trillion yen ($96 billion).

A decade later, Kobe is again a glittering modern city of more than 1.5 million people.

But scars remain, especially among the poor, the elderly and the children who were hardest hit when the disaster stuck....the rest...

[AssKissinger]

I just want to quote a little more of this article because it's FG related

Nagata Ward is home to minorities who lost lives and assets in huge numbers, partly because their flimsy houses collapsed easily and their plastic shoe factories burned for days.

The area is home to "burakumin," a minority racially indistinguishable from other Japanese but discriminated against because of their association with jobs considered unclean by Buddhism and Shinto, such as leather work, killing animals and handling the dead

Is bigotry against burakumin still a big problem? I've heard that where I live they are still typically quite impoverished.

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: Quake survivor dies alone; body found 20 months later
Symbolizing the lingering plight of earthquake victims here, police reported that the skeletal remains of an elderly man living in special housing were found in November, 20 months after his death. The man, thought to be 63, had been living alone in a "rehabilitation residence" in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, but had dropped off the radar of social services about two years ago. His remains were found when officials from the prefectural housing corporation came to forcibly evict him because he had fallen behind on his rent. His case is a sad reminder of the negative legacy left by the Great Hanshin Earthquake that struck Jan. 17, 1995, killing 6,433 people.
... The Asahi Shimbun found Thursday that in the past decade as many as 560 quake survivors-most of them elderly-had died alone in temporary housing and rehabilitation residences in Hyogo Prefecture. There were 233 such deaths among residents who were originally taken into temporary housing from March 1995 to December 1999; followed by 327 deaths occurring in rehabilitation residences from January 2000 to December 2004. Eleven "solitary deaths" occurred in the past two months alone.

[Taro Toporific]

[Mulboyne]

FT.com Letters: What Kobe's recovery after its earthquake can teach the world about disaster preparedness

Sir, David Pilling's article "Tokyo prepares for 'the big one'", January 17) makes some general points about preparedness based on the lessons learned in Kobe following its earthquake in 1995. The article, however, does not explain why Kobe succeeded, where so many cities fail, to capitalise on the desire to make the rebuilt city better and safer. Measures that enhance the quality of life and economic performance can also build stronger communities and improve the environment.
A key lesson is the need for ongoing strategic assessments of a city's strengths and weaknesses. This knowledge can then be exploited when a disaster occurs. Thus, the replanning of Kobe's highways to provide more routes and capacity for growth, and the creation and reorganisation of its parks (which can also serve as safety refuges in time of crisis), helped the city to realise strategic objectives that had already been identified before the 1995 earthquake.
The rebuilding of a city begins even before relief efforts have ended. Delays in the rebuilding of Kobe were minimised, partly because government at all levels worked together in a special taskforce under the responsibility of the prime minister. Bureaucratic squabbles and jurisdictional disputes otherwise put the reconstruction in jeopardy.
Many old people who lived alone in small wooden structures died in Kobe. The rebuilt city provided for mixed social housing that brought people of different generations together. In each district, an urban development council was formed in units of a single block or of several blocks, 97 in all.
The councils organised study meetings and conducted questionnaire surveys to support redevelopment plans. The city supported this by providing a consultant service. Economic and social recovery from a disaster, and disaster preparedness, form a continuum in regions where disasters are unavoidable at intervals measured in years, not generations. Good governance is fundamental, a lesson that will be validated again in countries hit by the tsunami.

Josef Konvitz, Directorate for Public Governance and Territorial Development, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 75775 Paris, France