Three years have passed since the Great Hanshin Earthquake. Spring has visited the survivors for the third time, but it seems that the long cold winter has not ever left us. As many as 65,000 evacuees still live in temporary housing, where a "lonesome death" (a person who lived alone and because of such condition their death was not discovered for some time) has been reported every 5-6 days.

The Hyogo Prefectural Police have counted the total of lonesome deaths to be 138. Many of them are men in their 40s or 50s who would have been in the prime of their careers had it not been for the earthquake. Despite the serious conditions surrounding evacuees, mass media no longer attempts to cover them even though it was so enthusiastic about detailed reporting soon after the earthquake.

While national attention has been drawn to such incidents as Aum, HIV/AIDS lawsuits, and O-157 virus, those who died prematurely as a consequence of the earthquake have hardly been noticed. The death toll from the earthquake reportedly numbers 6,425 -- a number that only covers immediate death by the disaster. Deaths in the aftermath, including lonesome deaths which are estimated to be 2,000 or 3,000, are not clarified by agencies concerned. Neither the police nor administrative organs seems to be active in obtaining correct data.

People's lives have only relative values. This is a keen realization of survivors. All the media had been so enthusiastic about covering the horrifying damage of a big city hit by an earthquake. Deaths resulting from the earthquake, sometimes three years later, however, are simply regarded as just another death. Contrary to the general perception, a characteristic of an enormous earthquake which hits a big city is found in this lingering damage that lasts years after the disaster.

Many of the survivors are: middle and old age people who lost their jobs by the earthquake and are unemployed; workers who are doubly indebted with loans for their destroyed houses and newly bought apartments; storekeepers who reopened their business in a readjustment area with unfinished residency projects and few customers; old people who lost all their property, spent their meager savings and who are at a loss for future livelihood.

Survivors are still having a hard time reconstructing their lives to normal condition. Three years after the earthquake, it is a reality that confronts many of them. Public assistance is indispensable to those who were deprived of the entire basis of their lives and are struggling to find ways to reconstruct their lives. In an effort to tackle these problems, the JCLU Osaka-Hyogo branch has taken up the issue of reconstruction of livelihood in the disaster-affected area as a theme of the public monthly lecture.