Hokkaido Quake Victims Remembered 8 Years On

Atsuma, Hokkaido, Sept. 6 (Jiji Press)--People in Hokkaido paid tribute Sunday to victims of a massive earthquake that rocked the northernmost Japan prefecture exactly eight years ago.

In the town of Atsuma, where 37 people died in the temblor, Mayor Shoichiro Miyasaka and others offered silent prayers at a cenotaph erected at a park near the town government building.

Miyasaka then laid flowers at an altar set up in the town's Yoshino district and said, "I renewed my determination to make efforts to create a safe community." In the district, 19 people were killed in large-scale landslides triggered by the temblor, which measured 7, the highest level on Japan's seismic intensity scale, in the town.

Tomo Inaba, 50, from the Hokkaido city of Tomakomai, who lost a co-worker in the landslide, was among those who visited the altar.

Inaba and the colleague drank together before the earthquake, after contacting each other following a long hiatus, according to Inaba. They promised to meet again after the turn of the year, but this did not come true. "The eight years passed by like a flash," Inaba talked to the colleague at the altar.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]