In the early morning of January 17th, 1995, I was awoken by an intense impact. The shaking was so intense that I couldn't even move, and I was consumed with the fear that my house might collapse. This was the moment the Southern-Hyogo Earthquake (the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake) began. In my town, Kobe City, the magnitude-7.2-quake, which lasted only 12 seconds, killed 4,484 people, 86,732 homes were destroyed or damaged, and 228,412 families lost their homes. The fires caused by the quake destroyed and damaged 7,379 homes. The fashionable, comfortable-to-live-in city that is surrounded by ocean and mountains was devastated. The homes, the livelihood, and the minds of the people were greatly damaged.
10 years have passed since then and I still live in Kobe. The damaged buildings and roads have been mostly repaired, and the town has been rebuilt. All trace of the disaster is invisible, but the lessons we learned from the disaster and the process of the reconstructing must be shown. I believe that it is necessary to share a message from Kobe on how the disastrous earthquake affected women, and what kind of reconstruction activities women developed. One of the lessons is that when a disaster strikes, existing issues, such as economic disparity between men and women, inequality, roles based on gender, have a stronger affect on people and create setbacks in terms of women's rights, positions, and human rights. In the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, 1,000 more women died than men and a large number of those were elderly. Japanese women have the longest life span in the world, but difficulties in life as a result of their age impacted their living environment and thus made them more vulnerable in disasters. Also, it was women (non-regular workers) who were subject to the first lay-offs by companies in the disaster areas. A division of labor based on gender was revitalized after the earthquake disaster. Based on the idea that "men work in a workplace and women take care of the housework, the family, and the community," women became fully responsible for all family matters while being surrounded by the various obstacles that the disaster caused. For working women, it became extremely difficult to be unfailing with both work and family. It affected marriages and the phrase "disaster divorce" was created. Cases of domestic violence increased. A hotline was opened by the Hyogo-Prefectural Women's Center six days after the earthquake. Through this hotline, calls revealed the existence of issues concerning women and these calls came in one after another. After the International Women's Year, it seemed that the position of women had improved; however, the earthquake made us realize how weak their positions still were. Then again, it could be viewed as progress when considering that various gender issues were made visible and the fact that they became one of the reconstruction tasks, thanks to the women's centers that were in the disaster areas.
Another lesson, regretfully learned, was that women's participation efforts should have been more systematized. After a disaster hits, people in those disaster areas naturally become eager to work for community and reconstruction efforts. Kobe was no exception. Women developed various activities such as establishing a community cooperation network and information centers to prevent domestic violence. Unfortunately, women couldn't participate in the official process and in turn were not able to have their activities within government reconstruction projects and plans. Most of the official planners were men. However, even though 10 years have past since the earthquake these women's activities are still continuing. I'd like to continue to promote and share with society what I have learned from the earthquake disaster.
"Hyogo's State of Affairs of the Disaster"