Non-Japanese speakers were excluded from access to disaster information after the Great Hanshin Earthquake struck 30 years ago, and Japanese and foreign residents are still filling in the cracks.
When the 7.3 magnitude quake struck Kobe at 5:46 a.m. on Jan. 17, 1995 — killing more than 6,400 people, including 174 foreigners — survivor Roxana Oshiro, a second-generation Peruvian of Japanese descent, did not understand Japanese.
A Japanese man guided Oshiro and her husband to the closest evacuation center — a junior high school. However, Oshiro refused to enter, unaware that it was earthquake-resistant.
