PROLOGUE:

 

            January 17, 1995 was a day that will be forever seared into my memory.  On that day, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake and widespread fires devastated Kobe, Japan and upended what was, until then, a very comfortable life for me.  Thousands perished, tens of thousands were injured, and hundreds of thousands lost their homes.  I was there that day and witnessed tragedy and suffering on a scale never before or since seen by me.  For six days thereafter I remained in the post-quake apocalyptic landscape, initially helping in the search and rescue of trapped residents and then doing what I could to help myself and others survive and recover.  This is my story and pictures of what I personally witnessed on that terrible day and during its immediate aftermath.

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            I moved to Japan in May of 1994 to start work as a Foreign Legal Advisor with a Japanese law firm in nearby Osaka.  My home was in Nada Ward, Kobe, a 45-minute train ride from Osaka.  Kobe was and remains one of the most beautiful cities in Japan.  Kobe is a long narrow city nestled between the Rokko Mountains and Osaka Bay.  Until 1995, it was completely unaware that it was built atop a fault line that would rupture and race down the entire length of Kobe's most densely populated areas with the explosive force of 240 kilotons of TNT - the equivalent of over 160 Hiroshima size atomic bombs.