Kobe earthquake

January 17, 1995

A 6.9 quake hit the Japanese port city before dawn, collapsing elevated highways that had been considered earthquake-proof and pancaking apartment blocks. Sixty-four hundred people died. The government response was slow and disorganized, revealing dangerous complacency in Japanese disaster planning. Yakuza gangsters organized better relief than the state in some neighborhoods. Japan's postwar self-image cracked.