In 20 seconds on 17 January 1995, the lives of 1.5 million residents of Kobe changed forever. The city was hit by a 7.3 Richter scale earthquake that killed 6,434 people and injured tens of thousands more. In those 20 seconds of devastating tremors and aftershocks, $200 billion in damage was done. Large areas of downtown Kobe and its suburbs were reduced to rubble, killing and trapping thousands in its burning, nightmarish aftermath. The life of one of Japan's most historic cities and vibrant trading ports literally stopped in its tracks. Train lines were cut, highways collapsed, hospitals and schools were destroyed, and thousands were turned into homeless refugees. It is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the "costliest natural disaster to befall any one country."

Officially known as The Great Hanshin Earthquake, or Kobe earthquake as it is called overseas, the event stunned Japan as news of the devastation filtered out to the country at large. In the first few days after the quake, help was slow in arriving from the outside.

The fire department struggled to contain fires in areas where water mains had been destroyed, and damaged hospitals treated the injured in hallways, or anywhere there was space. Those who had lost their homes huddled outdoors in parks in the biting winter cold. Kobe city hall became an instant refugee center, with people sheltering or sleeping everywhere in corridors. Long lines of people carrying their few belongings walked out of the city in all directions to reach places with food and water.

At that moment there was little time to mourn or grieve, and even less time to contemplate what had happened. But, out of this terrible chaos, one man resolved to record the stories of those who survived the destruction. Kazunori Takamori, a lifelong resident of Kobe whose business was badly damaged by the earthquake, started to collect the comments, narratives, and experiences of the survivors within days of the earthquake. He collected dozens, then hundreds, and eventually tens of thousands of stories to put into book format.

Mr Takamori was motivated to do this partly because his parents, who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima never had their diaries of their eye-witness accounts published in the post-war period, even though they tried many times to get the attention of publishers. His parents' personal experience moved Takamori to start collecting the writings of many Kobe earthquake survivors in order to give them a voice in the written memories of this wide-ranging natural disaster.

"Even a powerful experience such as an earthquake is difficult to explain after time passes," said Takamori, as he set out to make a record of the "small voices" of the people who went unnoticed by the mass media at the time. He walked throughout Kobe putting up posters in Japanese, Chinese, Korean and English asking people to contribute their memories and experiences of the earthquake.