The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Video Footage Archive for Public Viewing
The Video Footage Archive of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake is to share the lessons conveyed by these images and to contribute to public awareness raising and learning for the future generations to be prepared for future disasters.
Description
The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake was the first major earthquake in history where the fateful moment and the subsequent reconstruction process were recorded in detail on video. The Asahi Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Group retains an expansive library of archived footage from event and the aftermath. We wish to share the lessons conveyed by these images for the benefit of future generations. Therefore, the ABC Group has decided to release portions of our Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Video Footage Archive to the public online. We hope that many will view these valuable images and use them as a basis for disaster prevention and mitigation in the future. We also hope this initiative will encourage a worldwide movement to release archived video records of disasters caused by natural hazards to the public for sustainable use and application.
Did the Sendai Framework change or contribute to changes in your activities/organization? If so, how?
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction called for media to take an active and inclusive role at the local, national, regional and global levels in contributing to the raising of public awareness, understanding, and disseminating disaster risk information in a simple, transparent, easy-to-understand and accessible manner. The work of ABC Groups aims to contribute to this important call.
What led you to make this commitment/initiative?
What was your position before making this Voluntary Commitment / prior to the Sendai Framework?
While we were already quite active within Japan for public awareness activities by using our media products, by learning the Sendai Framework and global DRR efforts coordinated by UNDRR, we are motivated by the possibility that our media products could be shared with the international community and also could contribute to stimulating a culture of prevention and strong community involvement in DRR, in accordance with local/national/international practices.
We also believe in the message shared by the Sendai Framework to strengthen the utilization of media, including social media, traditional media, big data, etc., to support national measures for successful disaster risk communication.
Deliverables and Progress report
Deliverables
Deliverables are the end-products of the initiative/commitment, which can include issuance of publications or knowledge products, outcomes of workshops, training programs, videos, links, photographs, etc.
We have released approximately 38 hours of footage in this project, taken from our coverage of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake over a period of about seven months, from the time immediately after the earthquake to August 23 in 1995. We are releasing this footage unedited to the greatest extent possible to communicate the unusual conditions surrounding a disaster.
The approximate locations of these video clips are shown on the map indicating the affected areas. We segregated the videos into the following 12 categories to allow search by date and scene.
Fire/House Collapse/Infrastructure/Rescue/Evacuation Shelters/Medical Care/Living/Education /Transportation/Recovery and Reconstruction/Self-Defense Forces, Police, Firefighters/Support and Volunteers/
We hope this video footage archive will be viewed widely by individuals, families, and schools for use in disaster prevention and mitigation.
Organizations and focal points
Focal points
Partners
