Ten years have passed; clouds rise into the deep-blue sky of an Indian-summer day
10 years ago, on January 17, I was in Tateshina, Shinshu. I owned a small, run-down house there and had gone to stay in it. With neither television nor radio, it was an ideal place to escape the information overload of everyday life.
Even so, I needed food. On the morning of the 17th, I happened to go shopping in Chino. When I entered the store, flames were showing on the television. At first I had no idea what they were. I stood watching for a while and finally realized that a major earthquake had struck Kobe.
10 years have passed since then. At the time, I took reasonable precautions, such as sleeping with sneakers beside my pillow, but at some point I stopped doing so. As it happens, a major earthquake in the Tokyo metropolitan area is reportedly expected in 2005, plus or minus 5 years.
As I pray for the repose of the victims of the Great Hanshin Earthquake, I feel that we must remain vigilant so that their sacrifice will not have been in vain.
Related posts
Being Conscious of Death — 60 Years after the War, 10 Years after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake: Thoughts on the Chuetsu Earthquake and Indian Ocean Tsunami —
60 years have passed since the war, and people who do not know war now make up most of the population. In peaceful Japan, as long…
New Year’s in My First Year of High School
While lazing around over New Year’s, I suddenly decided to open an old diary. It covers New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day during my first…
Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians and Civilization and Enlightenment: What Experts Are Called Upon to Do Now
“What you people are saying is right, but it is too difficult to get across to ordinary people.” Lately, I have been asked to speak here…