What were you doing in January 1995?
Maybe you were on holiday and enjoying yourself.
You were probably oblivious to a horrible event that happened in a faraway country - the Kobe earthquake.
This earthquake had a magnitude 7.3, 6434 people were killed and 43,792 people were hurt.
When it happened, my family was living in Kobe, Japan.
The town we lived in wasn't damaged as much as the central part of the stricken area.
But despite this, it was very scary.
When the earthquake happened, I was 1 year old.
So, I don't remember anything.
This story is the one I heard from my father.
He was working at the hospital in the city next to Kobe.
A few minutes before the earthquake happened, an ambulance came with an outpatient.
At the exact time that he tried to see the patient, the floor started shaking a lot.
My father climbed under a nearby table.
He was in a panic and couldn't think of anything.
He just waited for the shaking to stop.
A few minutes later, the shaking stopped.
He stood up slowly and looked around.
A computer, books, many items were lying on the floor.
The patient was safe under another desk.
He was relieved seeing that.
Some people entered the hospital.
Fortunately, there were no serious cases.
There were about 20 people in all.
The car park in front of the hospital was cracked.
After finishing his examination, he left for our house by car.
When he was on the way, some signals didn't work due to power failure.
But there were no broken buildings so he could return to the house in safety.
First, he ran to the bedroom to confirm my brother and I were safe.
We were sleeping like nothing happened.
He was relieved and then went to the living room.
What he saw was a large amount of broken dishes lying on the floor and my mother glued to the TV, which showed the shaking picture of the central part of the stricken area.
Buildings were broken, roads were cracked and the town alight on fire.
My parents were speechless watching the nearby town that had completely changed.
Over the next few weeks, many people worked for Kobe.
They searched for missing people and distributed foods.
Now Kobe is almost reconstructed, thanks to the efforts of those who came to Kobe's aid.
Now, every year in January we pray in silence for those who suffered.
If your family or friends die suddenly, what do you do?You can do nothing.
There were a lot of such sad tragedies.
In the Christchurch earthquake, many people died and suffered so near to us in Dunedin.
I watched that news on TV and remembered my country and city.
And I wanted to do anything I could for them.
So I donated $50 to them.
Earthquakes are too horrible and too sad, but we can't avoid them.
Even in such tragedies, I want to help everyone if I can.
