Family members Wednesday mourned the death of a then-22-year-old university student who was killed in one of the major earthquakes that hit Kumamoto Prefecture in 2016.
Hikaru Yamato's 57-year-old mother, Shinobu Yamato, laid flowers at an altar set up near the now-defunct Aso Ohashi bridge in the village of Minamiaso, which collapsed in the quake.
At 1:25 a.m. — the time when the main quake struck nine years ago, registering the highest level of 7 on Japan’s seismic intensity scale — Shinobu and Hikaru’s 32-year-old brother Shogo observed a moment of silence.
Hikaru's father Takuya, who had visited the site every year, died in September 2024.
"No matter how many years have passed (since Hikaru's death), I can't bring myself to be positive," Shinobu said.
"I think Hikaru feels comforted now that his father is with him."
At 9:26 p.m. on April 14, 2016, the prefecture was rocked by a foreshock that also logged an intensity of up to 7. The main quake occurred just 28 hours later.
After delivering drinking water to a friend affected by the foreshock, Hikaru was driving back to his home in the city of Aso when he was caught in a landslide that followed the major quake. His body was found some four months later.
The earthquakes claimed the lives of 278 people, including those who died due to indirect causes, in Kumamoto and the neighboring prefecture of Oita.
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