With candles and prayers, songs and moments of silence, Japan on Monday marked the 10th anniversary of the earthquake that ripped through the port city of Kobe, killing nearly 6,500 people and demonstrating the vulnerability of modern metropolises to natural disasters. 

A plethora of commemorations testified to the depth of the 1995 tragedy: Hundreds of tearful survivors held a candlelight vigil at the time of the pre-dawn quake at 5:46 am, illuminating the form of the date, 1.17; students sang memorial songs about the catastrophe; rafts of dignitaries, including Emperor Akihito, filed into ceremonies organized by local authorities.

"It was terrifying," said Taiko Yamana, 68, recalling the day the 7.3-magnitude quake violently shook her house, killing her 90-year-old mother. "I come here every year on this day. I wonder if this one will be the last."

The Asian tsunami disaster loomed large over the landmark anniversary yesterday.

Many people in Kobe said seeing the damage on television brought back harsh memories of their own tragedy; others saw the common links between all victims of natural disasters. Some were moved to action, collecting relief donations at memorials to the Kobe victims.

For others, the tsunami disaster demonstrated how much worse the quake could have been.

"When I saw the tsunami on television, I thought, 'Thank goodness there wasn't anything like that in Kobe,'" said Yamana.

Still, the human and material tolls of the quake were astounding: 6,433 were killed in a city that many thought was in an area largely immune to earthquakes, and 43,792 were injured.

Hundreds of thousands of buildings were damaged, and the overall cost totaled US$96 billion.

The commemorations have been an occasion for the city to take stock of its recovery. The city has been nearly completely rebuilt: Trains now buzz over rails that were once gnarled by the quake; downtown now shines with shopping centers and office buildings.  

(China Daily January 18, 2005)