It's been 14 years since the Great Hanshin Earthquake happened. It occurred on Tuesday January 17, 1995 at 5:46:52 AM in the southern part of Hyogo prefecture. Its magnitude was 7.3, and registered as shindo (震度) 7 on the Japanese scale which had never happened before. 6,434 people lost their lives and about 44,000 people were injured. More than 300,000 people were sheltered. The amount of damage is said to be more than 10 trillion yen, and according to Wikipedia it is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the "costliest natural disaster to befall any one country." I think this earthquake is the biggest and worst since Kanto dai shinsai (関東大震災), Great Kanto Earthquake on September 1, 1923 at 11:58:32AM.
Every year on this day since the earthquake, there are many memorial events in many Kansai area.
Until that time, volunteerism has not been known to Japanese people, but this catastrophe made people volunteer. Therefore the year 1995 is called borantia gannen (ボランティア元年), the beginning year of volunteerism.
One of the best things I learned during my stay in the USA is volunteerism.
There is a phrase in Japanese, "jishin (地震:earthquake), kaminari (雷:thunder), kaji (火事:fire), oyaji (親父:father)." This is the order people have been afraid of most, though I am not sure if people are still afraid of the last one.
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