Model-turned-actress Ayame Misaki has played a variety of roles over the past decade, including a soldier in "Attack on Titan" and a manipulative hostess in the film "Judas," but her own story is arguably more dramatic and harrowing than any role she has appeared in.
The Kobe native was only 5 when her room started shaking on the morning of Jan. 17, 1995. It was the start of the Great Hanshin Earthquake, a disaster that killed close to 6,500 people, injured around 40,000 and left more than 300,000 displaced, including Misaki's family.
"I've forgotten many incidents in my life but I vividly remember that day and my time at the evacuation center," Misaki, now 29, told The Japan Times in an interview that took place prior to Monday's magnitude-6.1 earthquake in Osaka. "I can still hear the screams. All around I saw dead bodies and people lying under rubble. Those images have never left me."