The Dark Before The Dawn

Just three days after the 18th anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, I thought it an appropriate time to visit the Memorial Museum in Iwaya. A new exhibition there is the 15 minute 3D NHK documentary about the tsunami which devastated Tohoku. It is hard to imagine what it must have been like to have experienced these dreadful events but I thought this relief picture poignantly captured the mood and events in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake; the despair of those grieving, the uncontrollable fires, the freezing homeless huddled (if lucky) in blankets and the wrecked infrastructure, represented here by the powerless electric pylons, the collapsed train lines and expressways and the lack of any water supply. Thankfully, many lessons have been learned from this disaster and Kobe is once again vibrant, optimistic and strong. It seems that Tohoku, which suffered significantly worse damage than Kobe, faces a far longer road to recovery but, knowing the Japanese indomitable spirit of endurance, recover it surely will.

The images in this short documentary, Mego Quake Kobe 1995, help to recall the nightmare of that time.

Henryk Gorecki - Symphony Of Sorrowful Songs

I have included a photo of the museum building in my blipolio.