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January 17, 1995
5.46 AM
The earthquake occurred at 5:46:51.8 a.m. on January 17th (Tuesday), 1995.
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This earthquake was named "The Hyogo-ken Nanbu Earthquake 1995" by the Meteorological Agency on January 17th.
This disaster was designated "The Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake." (approved by the Cabinet on February 14th)
It was the biggest earthquake disaster after the Second World War, and shocked to the world not only the whole country.
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A big shake hit Kobe-Hanshin and Awaji Areas with the population of more than 3,500,000.
The Meteorological Agency announced that it was intensity 6, which was the maximum of seismometer's capacity at the time, but later revised it to intensity 7 for the certain parts of six wards of Kobe (from Suma to Higashinada), Ashiya, Nishinomiya, Takarazuka and northern Awaji Island after a subsequent field survey.
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6,434 people
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Total collapse: 104,906 buildings
Partial damage: 144,274 buildings
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Many fires broke out and spread in densely built-up areas with old wooden houses. Especially, in Hyogo and Nagata Wards in Kobe, numerous buildings were burnt down extensively.
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The major cause of death was asphyxiation or being crushed to death under collapsed building.
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It is estimated that about 80% of those who were trapped under collapsed buildings but survived were rescued by their neighbors.
Quake-proof buildings and strengthening of local communities' disaster prevention ability are the lessons we learned from the disaster.
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The cost of direct damage in the estimates in April 1995, has been approximate 10 trillion yen.
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48,300 temporary houses were constructed for the victims who had lost their houses by the earthquake. Successively the victims moved into them, and the number of the households residing in them reached its peak of 46,617 on November 15th, 1995. As they moved into disaster restoration public housing, those households decreased and all moved out of them on January 14th, 2000, about five years after the earthquake.
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Numerous volunteers came to the disaster-stricken areas from all over Japan to support the victims both physically and spiritually through various activities. Volunteers who came to the stricken-areas in person are said to be 20,000 persons per day on average during the first month. This number increases when the volunteers in the logistics were included.
The importance of volunteer activities became to be widely recognized, so the year of 1995 is also said to be "the first year of the volunteer movement" in Japan.
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Numerous volunteers came to the disaster-stricken areas from all over Japan to support the victims both physically and spiritually through various activities. Volunteers who came to the stricken-areas in person are said to be 20,000 persons per day on average during the first month. This number increases when the volunteers in the logistics were included.
The importance of volunteer activities became to be widely recognized, so the year of 1995 is also said to be "the first year of the volunteer movement" in Japan.