As the 30th anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake approaches, a talk session titled “The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake as seen by first-year engineering students” was held on Dec. 11 at the Faculty of Engineering, Kobe University. The event featured Professor KONDOU Tamiyo of the Research Center for Urban Safety and Security who was a student at the time of the earthquake and SUMIDA Koichi, now a professor at the Osaka University of Arts, who is a graduate of the Faculty of Business Administration and a former NHK announcer. The event was organized by the Kobe University News Net Committee, a student group that continues to cover earthquake-related topics, with support from the Kobe University Alumni Association and the Kobe University Technology Promotion Club (KTC). It was held in conjunction with a public recording of NHK’s “Radio midnight express,” attracting both students from within and outside the university who listened intently to their reflections.
The session aimed to give current students a chance to get a sense of the earthquake through the perspectives of those who experienced it, share the insights from students at that time, and to inspire thinking about how to face future disasters.
Kondou was a first-year student in the Department of Architecture at the Faculty of Engineering at Kobe University when the earthquake occurred in 1995. Usually living alone in Kobe City, she happened to be at her parents’ home in Shiga Prefecture, bedridden with the flu, on January 17, the day of the disaster. She first returned to the university at the end of January for a meeting about classes and other matters.
“From the train window, I saw the collapsed houses with their cross-section and interior furniture exposed. I was shocked by the extent of the destruction. It was hard to believe something like this could happen. I don’t recall any sounds, my impressions of the scene are in silence,” she said.
After the earthquake, researchers and students from across Japan conducted a survey on building damage, and Kondou was invited by a classmate to join. She shared her experience of being torn about whether to participate, only to eventually decide not to join. “My parents told me they were glad I wasn’t in Kobe at that time, but the main reason I didn’t join was fear ― I was terrified by the devastation,” she said. “I was also afraid of not knowing when aftershocks might strike. But looking back now, I regret not going,” she candidly shared.
She entered graduate school because she developed an interest in the role of consultants and other specialists who serve as a bridge between citizens and the government during the process of reconstruction and urban planning. One of the activities she participated in during her graduate studies was the “Victim interview survey” led by Professor MUROSAKI Yoshiteru (now a professor emeritus). This wasn’t a research project, but an effort to interview bereaved families and document the circumstances of victims’ deaths, house layouts, and families’ thoughts and feelings.
Regarding her motivation for participating, Kondou said, “I believe it was essential to understand the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake to learn how architecture, meant to protect lives, instead caused loss of life.” Some families she visited were those of Kobe University students who had died.
“One mother told us that she wished she had provided her child with a sturdier boarding house. I realized I, as a fellow university student, could have died too, and I deeply felt the family’s desire to preserve a record of their loss for future generations. Looking back, they might have opened up to us because we were students like their children,” she reflected.
While listening to Kondou’s experiences, Sumida also shared his own reflections and stories from his time as a journalist. A graduate of Kobe University and a former NHK announcer who covered disaster-stricken areas, Sumida spoke about the shock he felt in the aftermath of the earthquake. “In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, I was shocked to learn that as many as 39 Kobe University students had died,” he recalled. He also showed photos of black smoke over Kobe’s Nada Ward and charred remains of student housing destroyed by fire.
“One of the students who died was trapped under the rubble of his collapsed boarding house. His friends brought him bottled water while he was buried, but as the fire spread, they couldn’t save him. I heard his friends cried out in anguish,” he said.
Sumida shared that a grieving father once told him, “I can’t describe the pain of searching for my child’s remains with my own hands as a parent.” He added, “Even 30 years later, there’s still so much we don’t fully understand about the disaster. Countless events occurred at each site, and no one has documented or studied them all,” he said.
During the session, Kondou also shared her work on community development with local youth in areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake, along with her research on residential environments and community rebuilding. She told the audience, “Every academic field can play a role in promoting safe urban development, preventing human loss, and aiding disaster recovery. As long as you are studying in Kobe, a city that experienced the earthquake, I hope you’ll consider what you can contribute through your field of study. I also encourage you to visit as many places in Kobe as you can to witness the milestones in the city’s reconstruction journey,” she said.
Participants in the seminar gave a variety of comments such as, “I learned about aspects of the disaster that weren’t on TV news,” “I realized I can aid disaster recovery though my studies in law,” and “I saw how safety technology often exists but is not fully integrated into society.”
