The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake killed 6,434 people.


Many of them are said to have died on the day of the earthquake.



However, the number of deaths announced by the Hyogo Prefectural Police at noon on the day of the outbreak was 200.



"I didn't get any information in Tokyo, so I didn't know what was going on. This is unusual..."



What happened that day?

The commissioner of the National Police Agency at the time revealed the back side of the initial response.



(Kobe Broadcasting Station Reporter Mizuha Ide)

1995 Subway sarin attack and shooting incidents...

"1995 was a difficult year. The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake occurred, and there was the subway sarin attack by Aum Shinrikyo. And I was also shot.



" 85) looked back on 1995 (Heisei 7) when the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake occurred in an interview.

Kunimatsu joined the National Police Agency in 1961, and has held positions such as Director of the Public Security Department of the Metropolitan Police Department and Director of the Criminal Affairs Bureau of the National Police Agency.



He served as Commissioner of the National Police Agency for approximately two years and eight months until March 1997, dealing with the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and a series of incidents involving Aum Shinrikyo.



In March of that year, he himself was shot and fell into a critical condition for a time, a year that Kunimatsu will never forget.



The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake occurred about half a year after he assumed office.



"I've worked three times in Hyogo Prefecture, including as Chief of the Prefectural Police Headquarters, so it was a place I'm familiar with,"



he said, turning over materials from the time of the earthquake.

At that time, the Chief of Police

At 5:46 am on January 17th, the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake occurred.



Kunimatsu learned of the earthquake when his secretary, who was waiting earlier than usual for his business trip to Osaka, informed him.



"It was around 6:00 a.m. My secretary told me, 'There seems to have been a very large earthquake in Kansai. What should we do?' It was a camera showing the road, but the cars were passing by normally.

The most difficult part of dealing with the earthquake was figuring out the actual damage immediately after it occurred.

Reports of building collapses and fires were reported one after another in various places, and the local police were involved in lifesaving and search operations.



On the other hand, at the National Police Agency in Tokyo, about 500 kilometers away, the duty staff were in contact with the local police and began gathering information.



Kunimatsu arrived at the National Police Agency around 7:30 am.

However, the communication network linking the Hyogo Prefectural Police and the National Police Agency was said to have barely functioned.



"At first, no information was received in Tokyo, so I didn't know what was going on. I couldn't get in touch with the head of the Hyogo Prefectural Police, so I thought this was unusual..."



About 9:00 a.m., about three hours after the incident .

Before time.


I can finally get in touch with the chief of the prefectural police headquarters, who was in command at the Ikuta Police Station, which is close to the prefectural police headquarters.



"A seismic intensity of 7. Anyway, it's a devastating disaster. My public residence also collapsed. However, how much damage will it cause? We are currently gathering detailed information.



"

“Highway overturned” situation beyond imagination

Then I saw the news on TV.


Kunimatsu was speechless when he saw the image of the city of Kobe from above.

“I think it was around 9:30 a.m., but when I saw the news on TV that the Hanshin Expressway was lying on its side, I realized that the scale of the disaster was completely different from previous disasters. I don't think anyone at the time could have imagined that it would happen."



It was the first major urban disaster that Japan experienced after the war.

6,434 people died and more than 43,000 were injured.

It took a long time to grasp the extent of the damage, and at noon on the 17th, six hours after the outbreak, the Hyogo Prefectural Police announced that 200 people had died.



“It is said that about 5,000 people died on the day of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. A considerable number of people died in the morning alone. It means that it was a situation that exceeded

Said "biggest regret"

Immediately after the earthquake, Kunimatsu commanded the local police, which collected information on damage and rescued people.



What he said was his ``biggest regret'' was the delay in gathering information and sharing it with the Prime Minister's official residence due to the scale of the damage.

“The biggest regret, or perhaps the most regrettable thing, is the collection of information. We collect information about the affected areas through the departments in charge and share it with the Prime Minister’s Office and related organizations. It is the role of the police to collect information in the initial



response

, whether it is occurring or not.

It happened 4 hours after it happened.



At that time, there were criticisms that there was a problem with the government's crisis management.

It was also pointed out that there was a systemic problem in that while a certain amount of information was collected by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency and the National Police Agency, it was not delivered to the National Land Agency (at that time) or the Prime Minister's Office.

“At that time, Prime Minister (Tomiichi) Murayama was the prime minister. At first, we were criticized for our delayed response because we did not know the details of the local situation. I know it's a serious situation, so I think I should have shared the information on the affected areas with the prime minister's office and told them to hurry up and set up a disaster countermeasures headquarters."

Based on the lessons learned from the earthquake, the following year, in 1996, the government's response to emergencies underwent a major overhaul, including the establishment of a crisis management system in the Prime Minister's Office to collect information on a 24-hour basis.



Then, in 1998, the "Cabinet Crisis Management Deputy" was established with strong authority to take charge of overall coordination among ministries and agencies in the event of a large-scale disaster or terrorism.

If the initial response was wrong...

The delay in collecting information revealed by the top police at the time.



If he had made a different decision, the government's initial response might have been different.


Even now, 28 years after the disaster, I still have feelings of regret.

"In the case of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, it was not possible to quickly grasp the actual situation. I think that if a route had been established to quickly deliver the damage information that was learned from the National Police Agency to the Cabinet, and the information had been shared, the initial response would have been different. A considerable number of people died within an hour of the outbreak, and it was a difficult situation, but if a large number of support units had been mobilized more quickly, perhaps more people could have been rescued... Truly Hanshin.・The Great Awaji Earthquake taught us police a big lesson.”

Reflection and Lessons Shared with Society

Kunimatsu will be 86 years old this year.


In order to pass on his reflections and lessons to the next generation, he made a decision.


"Hyogo Earthquake Memorial 21st Century Research Institute" is a think tank in Hyogo Prefecture that conducts research on disasters.



In order to verify the response to the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, the testimonies of top government officials at the time have been preserved on the condition that they should not be made public for 30 years in order to have them speak their true feelings.

In the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, the research institute gradually released some of the records that had been obtained permission from the individuals themselves, without waiting for 30 years, but Kunimatsu continued to keep them private.



However, after obtaining the person's consent, NHK requested the research institute to disclose the recording, and the footage was released last month.



The video was recorded in 2004.


The transcript of the exchange is a 27-page written document, about two hours of video footage of the interview.

In his testimony, he also talked about his regrets about the initial response he revealed in an NHK interview and his review of the crisis management system after the earthquake.



After 28 years, what is the reason for responding to the disclosure of the record?



"It's been a long time since the earthquake. Recently, various problems have been pointed out regarding the country's crisis management system, including the spread of the new coronavirus. I thought it might be

“Information is life” Possibilities of SNS

After the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, the social environment changed dramatically.



Local governments across the country are also working to collect information such as rescue requests and damage status through SNS in the event of a disaster.



In Kobe City, a disaster area, the use of SNS for disaster countermeasures is spreading, such as the introduction of a new system that uses AI (artificial intelligence) to collect information overflowing on SNS during a disaster and displays it on a map.



Kunimatsu says that it will be even more important to determine the truth of the information and use it for rescue operations.



"I'm an old person, so I don't know much about SNS. However, in the event of a disaster, you can collect videos and photos of the scene, as well as location information, in real time. It's a power that media like you, who are called mass media, can't predict. However, there are times when incorrect information spreads as if it were true and has a tremendous impact. I think it's important to have a system that allows us to collaborate and instantly judge the accuracy of information.Information is the lifeblood of disaster response."

Lessons from the past To the next generation

At the end of the interview, Kunimatsu emphasized how to "assume" the "unexpected".



"I don't think there's a perfect way to deal with disasters. That's why I think it's necessary to learn lessons from the past and review crisis management over and over again. After all, people tend to forget past disasters." If you're not one of those involved—”



After the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, I also experienced the Great East Japan Earthquake.

He also had to deal with the "unexpected" nuclear disaster.



In the future, how should we prepare for situations that we have never experienced?


I would like to continue interviewing in order to pass on the lessons that transcend generations.