Mother Mourns Son 10 Years after Kumamoto Quake in Japan

Minamiaso, Kumamoto Pref., April 16 (Jiji Press)--A mother returned on Thursday to the site of a bridge collapse in a landslide that happened after an April 2016 massive earthquake in Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan, leaving one of her sons dead.

"There isn't a day that goes by when I don't think about what happened back then," said Shinobu Yamato, 58, who visited the former Aso Ohashi Bridge site to offer a prayer for the son, again choosing the anniversary of the second of the two main shocks that struck the region April 16, 2016.

The son, Hikaru, a 22-year-old university student then, had delivered drinking water to a friend affected by the first shock two days before. On his way home, his car was caught in a landslide near the bridge in the village of Minamiaso.

He was named Hikaru, meaning "to shine," in the hope that "he would reach out to others like a beam of light," she said.

Prefectural and other authorities mobilized a total of roughly 2,500 search and rescue personnel over two weeks. But they had to scale back the operations May 1 due to the risk of secondary disasters.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]