Nada Ward, Kobe, looking east. Smoke rising into the early morning sky.
DAY ONE - Tuesday, January 17, 1995 (Part 1):
The quake struck when most people lay snug and warm in their deepest pre-dawn sleep. I awoke at 5:00 a.m. to accompany my friend Takako to Osaka where she would catch a Shinkansen bullet train back to her home in Tokyo. Afterwards I planned to arrive at work early following a long and relaxing three-day holiday weekend.
I had just finished taking a shower and was putting on my tie when the quake struck at 5:46 a.m. It began without warning, rapidly built up, and peaked before quickly winding down. I remember hearing a rumbling noise racing towards me from a distance that rapidly increased in volume several seconds before the quake hit. A few seconds into the quake there were several very strong jolts that shook the building violently, first up and down and then side to side. The shaking was so severe I could not remain standing, even as I held a door frame for support. Household items fell and crashed all around us. Fearing the building was about to fall and crumble on top of us, Takako and I crawled under the protection of a large nearby dining table. The sound was deafening. It sounded and felt as if a freight train were roaring through my living room.
As we huddled under the table the quake stopped almost as quickly as it had begun. It took us a few seconds before we realized the quake had stopped because our bodies still trembled with fear. Although it seemed much longer, the quake lasted only twenty seconds. It was without a doubt the most frightening and intense twenty seconds of my life.
We cautiously got out from under the table and I went to check on my Canadian friend Mike who was visiting Japan and staying with me for a few weeks. I barged into his room and found him groggy from partying the night before as he demanded I stop shaking his bed. I told him it was an earthquake and that he needed to get up NOW! We quickly threw on jackets and were hit with a series of strong aftershocks, making us hasten our already frenzied efforts to get outside. We weren’t sure the building would remain standing. We were on the third floor of a five-story apartment building. The thought of being crushed or trapped was on all our minds.
Damaged houses north of JR Rokkomichi. Collapsed tracks can be seen in the distance.
Without locking the door behind us, we hurried down the stairwell and out into the street. Neighbors streamed out of our building and other nearby homes. Some had not bothered changing and simply rushed out into the cold morning air clad only in their sleepwear. Everyone was excited and agitated, but there was no panic.
There were no streetlights or other power. It was still quite dark outside and although the sun had not yet risen, the eastern sky was just beginning to lighten. Ominously though, there were large dark cloudy patches in the horizon caused by the smoke of several distant fires.
Our neighborhood seemed fine and not so damaged. As our eyes grew accustomed to the dark, we saw that roof tiles and siding had fallen off some older houses. However, there were no collapsed buildings or fallen power lines.
As the minutes passed and cold got to us, we began to wonder if the quake had really been that bad. Most people had just stayed inside. We returned to my apartment to change into warmer clothes, check on things and lock up before leaving again. Once back inside, I shut off the gas line and we retrieved our wallets, keys and warmer jackets. There were still frequent aftershocks, so we took only what we needed and hurried back down to the street.
Once back outside we began walking towards Rokko Station to see what was happening. Rokko Station was a ten-minute walk from my apartment and is part of the Hankyu Line (the northernmost of three rail lines running between Osaka and Kobe). As we crossed the Hankyu railroad tracks and headed south, we saw several older homes had cracked wide open or collapsed.
The houses on one side street in particular was very badly damaged, and we headed there to see if anyone needed help. An elderly man, still wearing his pajamas and slippers, was clawing frantically through the twisted remains of his collapsed home while repeatedly crying out for his wife. Mike and I and several other people rushed over to help the man find his wife.
When the quake struck, the first floor of the neighbor’s house collapsed and caused the second story to slide out and fall on top of the elderly couple’s adjacent home. The second floor of the larger neighboring house had fallen intact on the couple’s first floor bedroom and crushed it. The far wall of the couple’s home had then fallen and caved in on top of everything. There was broken glass, tangled wires, splintered wood with large nails sticking out, broken household items and other debris piled all over.
As we dug through the rubble to find the man’s wife, portions of the far wall leaned menacingly over us. We took several broken beams and propped them up against the far wall for extra support before resuming our digging, all while sharp nails, broken glass and splintered wood surrounded us. We soon heard the woman’s voice and uncovered her head and shoulders. At first, we could not see her as she was matted with dirt, dust, splinters and other small debris. But then she twisted her head to one side, and we realized there was a human being buried under all that broken mess. Her husband excitedly called out encouragement to her, in a voice choked with emotion, relief and fear of whether she was injured.
She was buried under much rubble. To protect her from further injury we covered her face and head with a blanket and continued pulling away the debris around her. She was still lying in her futon, with the edge of the neighbor’s house settled across her midsection. Miraculously, she had not been crushed as various obstructions had caused the building to stop only a few centimeters above her body.
She could not be moved because she was pinned tightly in place. A man in a black coat crawled beside the woman and removed more of the debris surrounding her body. By using other broken beams as levers, we were able to relieve some of the pressure on her and remove more debris from underneath her. The man in the black coat and I grabbed her under her shoulders and slowly but firmly pulled her out into the waiting arms of neighbors who laid her down on a heavy blanket. Grabbing the corners of the blanket we then carried her over the rubble and out into the street, where Takako and another young woman began administering first aid. We found several pieces of wood and used them to make splints for her injured legs.
The woman’s husband was so relieved and elated to have gotten his wife out. They were both crying uncontrollably. He had scrambled all over the rubble in panic and received several deep cuts. But if he was in pain, he either didn’t know it yet or would not show it.
As we backed off to let the woman receive first aid, Mike and I approached the man in the black coat, patted him on the back, shook his hand and told him he had been a great help to all of us. He was flustered and did not know what to say. We came from very different backgrounds and were complete strangers who never learned each other’s names and would never meet again. But as we worked frantically side by side as one to free the elderly woman.
We turned away as several firemen arrived to help find and free two other people who had been trapped under a nearby house. Mike and I realized that things were much worse than we had initially thought. We decided to return home to change into warmer more suitable clothes and to get some supplies since we expected being quite busy and outside for a long time that day. I was still dressed in my office work clothes under my jacket.
Heavy damage south of Hankyu Rokko. Businessman heads for work?!? Woman sits dangerously under house.
After returning home to change and pick up some supplies, we climbed to the roof of my apartment building to get a better view of the neighborhood. The sun had risen about an hour earlier and was still low in the horizon. We looked in the direction of Osaka and saw a lot of smoke rising and partially blocking the morning sun. The eastern sky was an ugly smokey yellow gray color. We were struck with an eerie nervous chill as we stood there on the roof silently watching huge clouds of smoke fill the morning sky. Looking west in the opposite direction we saw even more smoke rising beyond Sannomiya and downtown Kobe about seven kilometers away. The nearest fires and destruction, however, were less than a kilometer away to the east. We decided to head there to see if we could help anyone who might be trapped.
Skipping over large cracks in the street and fallen debris we approached the railroad tracks and saw an old house collapsed and fallen into the street. It was a house I had passed every day on my way to work since arriving in Japan eight months earlier. People walked calmly by without stopping to look inside to see if the people living there had gotten out safely. We quickly called into the rubble for any survivors but were met with silence. Since the fire was still some distance away and since we did not know if the house had already been searched, we resumed walking towards the fire in the belief that that was where more immediate help was needed.
Continuing south of the tracks we saw many houses with severe structural cracks which, if they didn’t collapse during one of the numerous aftershocks, would have to be torn down later. A woman sat bundled and shaking in a blanket right underneath a three-story apartment that leaned precariously over her. We helped her move after pointing out the danger. We also passed a cemetery where even the dead were not spared the effects of the quake. Most of the stone markers had toppled and broken, becoming a mixed up mash that made it difficult to determine where each one had belonged.
A block away from the fire we saw several large old wooden houses that had collapsed. A dozen people crawled amid the ruins of one large house, which was now a huge heap of rubble. A neighbor said two people might be trapped inside. Mike and I joined the searchers, but it was stopped after ten minutes when no one could be found or heard.
Takako worried about her parents and wanted to call them to let them know that she was OK. I also needed to call my office, so Takako and I left Mike to find a working payphone before rejoining him later. We quickly found a phone, but there was already a long line of people waiting to use it. While Takako waited in line, I told her I wanted to walk around the neighborhood some more to see if anyone needed help. I assured her that I would return soon.
Lone fireman struggles to contain raging fire without water in Nada Ward.
I walked towards the main fire. It had gotten much bigger and had already consumed five or six square city blocks. The center was just smoking ashes and many buildings around the edges were burning out of control. I heard many muffled explosions as home propane gas tanks and automobile fuel tanks exploded when the fire reached them. As they exploded, they rained down sparks and flaming debris, spreading the fire further. I walked down a burnt road with smoldering ruins on both sides and saw two cars quieting burning side by side. The air and ground were hot, and the smoking ruins and nearby fires made the normally cold January morning feel like summer.
Halfway through this burnt landscape I met a woman quietly pacing the street in front of her still burning home. I asked about her family and she looked at me with unbelieving eyes and absently replied that her husband was away on a business trip but that she wasn’t sure about her neighbors. She pointed to a flat adjacent lot with nothing but smoking ashes. We were standing on the street about five meters away from three cars that were parked against her burning house. I gently placed my hand on her shoulder and calmly told her in broken Japanese that she should move away as the cars had gasoline in them and would soon explode. Without saying another word, she slowly walked off in a daze behind several other people who were quietly passing by.
I walked a block further towards several newer three to six story apartment buildings that were starting to burn. I looked back the way I had come. The woman was gone but the outer wall of her burning house had fallen on top of the three cars. In another minute they would be gone too.
Rather than passing between the burning apartment buildings I turned and walked down a half burned long covered shopping arcade or “shotengai”. On one side a shop was quietly burning. As I walked by, the interior glowed orange and shimmered in the clear heat. Further on a small local grocery shop had partially collapsed and spilled a large amount of food items into the street. Standing there, almost motionless against a background of moving people and swirling smoke, was a well-dressed man in a three-piece business suit and overcoat carrying a briefcase. His free hand held a long sliver of wood with a rice ball on the end which he calmly roasted over the embers of the just-burned shop while he surveyed the scene around him. I slowly passed him by staring in amazement as he began eating his toasted rice ball oblivious to me and all others around him.
I returned to Takako, still waiting in line to use the phone. After waiting another fifteen minutes we were finally able to use the phone to call her parents, my boss and a friend in Hiroshima. We then returned to where we had left Mike.
Large fire heading towards rescue site. Car fuel tanks exploded as fire advanced, spreading fire further.
There were more people now, since it had been confirmed that people were trapped in two of the collapsed houses. But the fire was much bigger and closer. It was steadily approaching the search area down a fully engulfed side street. Although a small unit of firemen had arrived on the scene, there was no water to fight the fire since all the water mains had broken during the quake.
As I ran over to join Mike, I decided to instead help another homeowner who had a smaller group of people searching her home, where three people were trapped under the rubble. I joined the others and began looking and shouting into holes, cracks and any other openings in the pile of ruins. The owner showed us the general area where she thought her relatives might be and we all began digging and pulling away the rubble.
The house had been a two-story wooden structure with a heavy tile roof that had collapsed and fallen in on itself. Someone had a flashlight, small handsaw and light crowbar. The heavy beams and way the neighboring houses had all collapsed together against each other made it difficult to get in from the sides or even to know where each house began or ended. So we started digging from the roof down. The three people were somewhere in two rooms on the first floor. We had to dig through the fallen broken clay roof tiles, attic and second floor to get to them. No one knew if they had even survived or not. All we knew was they might be there and that we had to get to them before the approaching fire did.
The fire continued its steady approach. It was advancing down both sides of a small narrow side street that ended in a massive pile of burning rubble and from there led to the houses that Mike, I and others were frantically searching for trapped survivors. We were racing against time and the advancing fire. Something in one of the neighboring homes exploded and showered burning debris over the rubble we were searching. People rushed in with fire extinguishers, jackets and tree branches to try and beat out the smaller fires.
Smoke and dust from our digging and the nearby fire choked and became increasingly unbearable. Yet we did not stop. While digging we uncovered old black and white photos of an attractive young smiling woman. Although I saw them for only few seconds, their images stuck to my mind and caused me to increase my efforts to find her. The pictures now made it personal.
Finally, someone heard a weak cry for help and we located an elderly woman. We broke through floorboards and pulled away the wreckage to get to her. We saw her dust covered torso first, and then uncovered her head and shoulders. Like the first elderly woman Mike and I helped rescue earlier that morning, the woman was still in her futon. A heavy beam had fallen across her upper legs firmly pinning her in place. We used the crowbar and our fists to remove floorboards and smaller crossbeams around her, and began cutting the heavy beam with the small handsaw.
We had burrowed down to the woman and two men and I stood in the hole continuing to clear away further debris from the woman’s body. The sawing was going agonizingly slow and it became obvious that it wasn’t going to be fast enough to cut the beam before the fire came. Only a quarter way through cutting the heavy beam, the small handsaw broke. Two men and I desperately tried to move the heavy beam, but it did not move at all. We tried using other broken beams as levers, but to no avail.
The fire had now reached the edge of the house where we were working and it was clear that we were running out of time. The fire extinguishers had all been used and no number of jackets or tree branches were going to stop the spread of the fire.
The beam pinning the elderly woman firmly in place would not budge, as too much heavy debris still rested on top of it. Panic appeared in the woman’s eyes as she smelled smoke from the advancing fire. She pleaded with us not to leave her there. Things become increasingly desperate. I then remembered there were some cars parked nearby and thought one must surely have a jack. After mentioning this to one of the other men working with me, he yelled up for someone to bring us a car jack. It arrived two minutes later and were hurried to position and brace it under the beam.
The edge of the house had now begun to burn, and a smoke began appearing from the hole we had dug. The heat and crackling of the nearby advancing fire increased as it spread under the rubble. A few people retreated to the street, but most remained as we began using the car jack to finally begin lifting the beam off the woman. We needed to lift it only a few centimeters, and when we had done so we began pulling out the now terrified woman. There was no time to be delicate, and the woman screamed in agony as we finally pulled her out from under the heavy beam and released the pressure on her crushed legs. Whatever pain or further injuries resulted from our lack of delicacy was better than being burned alive. As we lifted her out of the hole, more smoke billowed out. We had won the race. We carried her down to the street and laid her on a straw tatami mat. Minutes later, the place where she had lain was a raging inferno.
There was a heavy mixed air of relief and sadness among the group of us who had labored to help get the trapped woman out. We were relieved to have rescued her in time, but sad to know that two other people remained trapped in the now burning rubble. No one wanted to stay as the house burned, and as we slowly walked away we silently wished the others had perished earlier.
Rescue underway in Nada-ku, Kobe, as fire approaches in background.
Houses burn in Nada-ku, Kobe, between Hankyu Rokko and JR Rokkomichi.