On 17 January 1995, at 5:46 in the morning, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake shook Kobe for about twenty seconds. 6,434 people died, most of them crushed by their own homes, and more than a hundred thousand buildings were completely destroyed. Twelve stops between the artificial island that liquefied, the museum that recreates that dawn, the hillside from which you can see the strip of destruction, the houses of foreign merchants, the shrine that gave the city its name, the shopping street and Chinatown that reopened, the broken pier left exactly as it was, the port that never regained its place, the giant robot of Nagata, the building that lost a floor and the flame that burns for the victims. Approximate audio duration: 21 minutes.
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Kobe: los veinte segundos que derrumbaron una ciudad y los años que tardó en levantarse
El 17 de enero de 1995, a las 5:46 de la mañana, un terremoto de magnitud 7,3 sacudió Kobe durante unos veinte segundos. Murieron 6.434 personas, la mayoría aplastadas por sus propias casas, y más de cien mil edificios quedaron completamente destruidos. Doce paradas entre la isla artificial que se licuó, el museo que reconstruye aquel amanecer, la ladera desde donde se ve la franja de la destrucción, las casas de los mercaderes extranjeros, el santuario que le dio nombre a la ciudad, la calle comercial y el barrio chino que volvieron a abrir, el muelle roto que se dejó tal cual, el puerto que nunca recuperó su lugar, el robot gigante de Nagata, el edificio que perdió un piso y la llama que arde por las víctimas. Duración aproximada de audio: 21 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~21 min of audio · 27.27 km on foot (~6 h 50 min walking) · about 7 h 15 min in total
You are standing on land that sixty years ago was sea. Rokko Island is an artificial island, built between 1972 and 1992 off Kobe's eastern shore. Look north: those green mountains are the Rokko range.
Kobe is a narrow city. Between the mountains and the sea there are only a few kilometres of flat land. To grow, the city did something bold: it cut down its hills and dumped the earth into the water.
That material built two islands, Port Island and Rokko Island. On the flattened hills, new neighbourhoods went up. In Kobe they summed it up in a phrase: the mountain went to the sea.
On 17 Janua…
2
The Dawn of 17 January
In front of you is a glass building that looks like a box of light. This is the Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution, opened in 2002. Inside, the dawn of the earthquake is reconstructed minute by minute.
It was 5:46 on a winter Tuesday morning. Most people were asleep. The fault ruptured beneath the northern tip of Awaji Island, about twenty kilometres to the southwest, and the rupture ran towards Kobe.
The violent shaking lasted around twenty seconds. It was the first time the Japan Meteorological Agency applied the top level of its intensity scale, seven.
6,434 people died,…
3
The Strip of Destruction
You have taken the ropeway up to the Nunobiki Herb Gardens, on the slopes of the Rokko mountains. They opened in 1991, four years before the earthquake. Look down: all of Kobe fits into a single glance.
Notice the shape of the city. It is a long, narrow ribbon squeezed between mountain and bay. That geography explains much of what happened.
After the earthquake, geologists drew a map of the damage. A strip of maximum destruction appeared, roughly a kilometre wide and about twenty long, running parallel to the coast.
That strip ran from Suma in the west to Nishinomiya in the east. There, the…
4
The Foreigners' Houses
You are in front of a red-brick house with a metal rooster on the tip of its tower. This is the Weathercock House, completed in 1909 for a German merchant, Gottfried Thomas. Around you, along the sloping streets, are more Western-style houses.
Kobe is a young city. Its port opened to foreign trade in 1868, as Japan emerged from two centuries of isolation. British, American, German and Chinese merchants arrived.
At first they lived below, in the foreign settlement by the port. From the late nineteenth century many moved up to this hillside, cooler and with a view of the sea. That is how the K…
5
The Shrine That Always Rises Again
You have passed beneath a red torii, a few blocks from Sannomiya station. You are at Ikuta Shrine, one of the oldest in this region. According to tradition, it was founded in the early third century.
The city's name comes from here. In ancient times, the households that supported this shrine were called kanbe. Over the centuries the word became Kobe.
This shrine has a history of destruction. In 1938 a great flood swept mud down from the mountain. In 1945 American bombing burned it almost entirely.
In the early hours of 17 January 1995 its turn came again. The worship hall collapsed, its eno…
6
The Street That Reopened
You are under the roof of the Motomachi shopping arcade. It runs for more than a kilometre from east to west, parallel to the railway. It is one of Kobe's oldest shopping streets.
Motomachi means original town. It was the core of the old Japanese town, next to the foreigners' settlement. Sailors, merchants and families coming down to shop all passed this way.
In 1995 the arcade was badly damaged. Facades fell, glass and roofs shattered. A few steps away, the Daimaru department store, on the edge of the former foreign settlement, partly collapsed.
For weeks much of the city had no water or g…
7
The Quarter of Those Who Could Not Live Inside
You are in the central square of Nankinmachi, Kobe's Chinatown. There are red lanterns, a Chinese-style pavilion and street-food stalls everywhere. Breathe in the smell of steam and roasting meat.
This quarter was born with the port, from 1868 onwards. Japan did not yet have a treaty with China, so Chinese merchants could not settle inside the foreign concession. They stayed here, right next to it.
Over time Nankinmachi became the heart of Kobe's Chinese community. They sold fabrics, porcelain, spices and food. Their families have been in the city for generations.
The quarter had already be…
8
The Pier Left Broken
You are in Meriken Park, by the sea. Look at that stretch of sunken, cracked quay with its twisted lamp posts. It is not a forgotten ruin. It is the Port of Kobe Earthquake Memorial Park.
About sixty metres of the old quay were left exactly as they were after 17 January 1995. The paving split, the edge shifted towards the water and the lamp posts tilted.
What happened here is the same thing you saw on Rokko Island. The reclaimed ground liquefied in the shaking. The retaining walls gave way and the whole quay slid towards the bay.
Something similar happened across the whole port of Kobe. Alm…
9
The Port That Was Never the Same
In front of you is Kobe Port Tower, red and shaped like an hourglass. It is 108 metres high and opened in 1963. It withstood the earthquake and became one of the city's symbols.
Look at the bay. Before 1995, Kobe was one of the busiest container ports in the world, and one of the most important in Japan. Much of western Japan's trade came in and went out through here.
The earthquake almost paralysed it. Ships were diverted to other ports: Osaka, Yokohama and, above all, Busan in South Korea and Kaohsiung in Taiwan.
The rebuilding was fast. Within about two years the berths were working agai…
10
The Robot of Nagata
Look up. In front of you is an eighteen-metre blue steel robot with its fist raised. This is Tetsujin 28, the hero of a 1950s manga. You are in Wakamatsu Park, in the Nagata district.
Nagata was one of the hardest-hit districts of Kobe. It was a dense working-class area of tightly packed wooden houses and small workshops. The synthetic shoe industry was concentrated here.
After the shaking, fires broke out and merged into one another. With mains broken and streets blocked by rubble, firefighters could do almost nothing. Entire blocks burned to the ground.
Nagata was also one of the district…
11
The Building That Lost a Floor
You are at the foot of Kobe City Hall tower, thirty storeys high, completed in 1989. If you have time, go up to the free observation deck on the twenty-fourth floor. From there you can see the port, the artificial islands and the mountain.
In 1995 this new tower held up well. But the older eight-storey municipal building next door suffered a spectacular failure. Its sixth floor collapsed, crushed between the floors above and below.
The photograph of the building with one floor missing, as if a slice had been taken out, became one of the images of the earthquake. The same thing happened to ot…
12
The Flame of 17 January
You are in Higashi Yuenchi Park, in front of a small flame burning inside a stone monument. It is called the 1.17 Light of Hope. It was lit on 17 January 2000 and has burned without interruption ever since.
Its fire was formed by joining flames brought from every prefecture in Japan. It is a gas flame, and gas has a special meaning here: for weeks after the earthquake, the city had none.
Beside it is an underground space with plaques bearing the names of the victims. Notice that the list does not include only the dead of Kobe. The earthquake also struck Ashiya, Nishinomiya, Takarazuka and Aw…
How long does the "Kobe: the Twenty Seconds That Brought Down a City and the Years It Took to Rise Again" audio tour take?
It has about 21 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 27.27 km walking route (~6 h 50 min on foot). Plan roughly 7 h 15 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "An Island Made of Mountains" (coordinates 34.6906, 135.2687). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Kobe and pick "Kobe: the Twenty Seconds That Brought Down a City and the Years It Took to Rise Again". No account required to start.
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No wifi needed · Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean
