Photographs of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake: Top page of NDL Great East Japan Earthquake Archive (HINAGIKU)

January 15th, 2024

It has been nearly 29 years since the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake on January 17th, 1995. In commemoration of this tragic natural disaster, five photographs from two archives will be exhibited on the top page of HINAGIKU from January 15th to January 31st, 2024.

The two archives are the Kobe University Library Digital Archive Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster Materials Collection and the Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution (DRI).
Both archives are located in Kobe and collect a variety of records related to the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake.
They are also working on a number of initiatives intended to hand down experience from the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and to apply those lessons to future needs. You can search materials from these archives via HINAGIKU.

Kobe University Library Digital Archive Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster Materials Collection

Overview of the collection

The Kobe University Collection includes books, research reports, survey reports, statistical compilations and other printed matter as well as CD-ROMs and other electronic media, videos, audio cassettes, microforms, photographs, and maps.
Moreover, it includes a Digital Gallery, from which photographs or audio and other materials are accessible, as well as news material footage by local TV station "Sun Television". On the page of fixed-point photographs (Japanese) , you can see the status of restoration at the same place after the earthquake disaster.

Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution (DRI)

Overview of the collection

The DRI archives documentation and items created or used during the recovery and reconstruction of the affected communities in the aftermath of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995.
It also archives publications about disaster prevention and about the damage caused by the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and other disasters.
The DRI website also features a project entitled "Earthquake Disaster Resource Narrative - A Story".