Kobe –
Sunflowers growing in an empty plot of land in the city of Kobe, where a home once stood before a massive earthquake 30 years ago, have spread throughout the country as a symbol of reconstruction from disasters and remembrance of victims.
For Itsuka Kikuchi, the now 45-year-old who lived in the quake-hit home at the time, the sunflowers were a psychological burden at times, as she grieved the death of her then 11-year-old little sister Haruka Kato in the Jan. 17, 1995, quake.
Now a mother, Kikuchi is passing on the stories of her experiences to the younger generation who were born after the magnitude-7.3 quake, which killed 6,434 people.
