My Book Ⅰ
Written by Hiroyuki Ikeda
[ No.3 ] I Don't Forget 1.17, the Great Earthquake of Kobe. 1.22, 2013
On January 17, 1.17, I don't forget that in 1995 on that day at 5:46 a.m. 6,434 people died by the Great Hanshin Earthquake. This year at a Kobe city park, Higashi Koen, 7,000 bamboo lantern mourning the victims were arranged in the form of 1.17 and also 3.11 which is mourning the Higashi -Nihon Great Earthquake victims. Also on 1.17 the Hyogo Safety Day Assembly was held in Nagisa Koen, a beach park near my house, and we remembered that great disaster in Kobe. We vowed not forget even 18 years after the Great Hanshin Earthquake.
Privately, my father and mother had big damage from the earthquake. They were living separately in Sannomiya and Okamoto and they both lost their houses. After that, in 1997, my father died with a broken heart and my mother was injured for a long time and died in September 2007. I was living in Osaka at that time and my wife and I often went to Kobe to help with disposal of my parents’ destroyed houses. At that time there was no way to go to Kobe by train because traffic was closed so we had to walk to their houses. We sometimes walked from Nishinomiya to Okamoto to my mother’s house and also from Sannomiya to Rokko Hospital to my father’s place.
After 18 years, I am still anxious about traces of Mesothlioma ( 中皮腫) in my lungs. My doctor told me it is from the dust of destruction from the ruined houses. Now I remember clearly the big damage of the last earthquake and I can understand those victims of Higashinihon Great Earhquake. But our ordeal is not over. They say there is Rokko fragmentation near here in Kobe and they say it is an active fault (活断層). And also they say Tonankai Earthquake could be very near and if it occurs, there will be a great tsunami and there will be a 4m tsunami flood in our area of Hat Kobe.
Anyway this country is a land of calamity, so we must think about the possibility and of big damage of losing our life at ant time. My parents tell me always of the calamity and big trials of our life. I remembered my parents, on 1.17.
