Japan Quake

A 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck the northeastern coast of Japan today, collapsing a pool's roof onto swimmers in the coastal city of Sendai and shaking buildings in Tokyo, 185 miles to the south, officials and news media said. At least 36 people were reported injured. Nineteen were hurt at the pool, but none critically, broadcasters said. Others in the quake zone were hurt by falling rocks and tumbling roof tiles.

The number of casualties from a strong earthquake near Japan's southernmost main island rose late Sunday to 400 injured and one dead. In a region still jittery from the devastating Dec. 26 Indian Ocean quake and tsunami, authorities evacuated half the residents of a tiny island near the quake's epicenter and warned of a tsunami, but later canceled the alert. The magnitude 7 temblor, which hit west of Kyushu island at 10:53 a.m. Sunday, was centered at an unusually shallow depth of 5.

A 3-year-old girl buried in an earthquake-triggered landslide in Japan was declared dead today, a day after rescuers pulled her younger brother alive from the wreckage of her family's van. The children's mother also died, despite initial reports that all three were alive. "It's so sad," said Tetsuya Hasebe of the Niigata regional government. Workers were still struggling to free Mayu Minagawa's body from the van where she, her mother and her brother were buried in Saturday's magnitude 6.

Japan's recent accident at a uranium processing plant, which exposed safety flaws in the country's aggressive nuclear energy program, has renewed concerns that an earthquake could trigger another crisis if it were to strike close to reactors or nuclear-related facilities. Japanese activists and some seismologists point out that some of this earthquake-prone archipelago's 51 nuclear reactors are built in areas where quakes are likely.

Japanese and American science officials have agreed on a new earthquake research partnership between the two countries, significantly expanding two 20-year-old science pacts. One of the earliest projects of the Earthquake Disaster Mitigation Partnership will be a Japanese-financed but jointly designed shake table in Japan that will be the world's largest to date.

The Japan America Society of Southern California has established the Kobe Relief Fund to aid victims of the 6.9-magnitude earthquake that has paralyzed the western Japan city and taken more than 3,100 lives. "Because of our experiences last year, we in California are especially sensitive to the pain of our sister state. The magnitude of damage and losses in Kobe and Osaka make us realize that as bad as our earthquake was, we were spared the full force of nature," said Michael C.

It makes perfect sense for the students and staff at Santa Susana School to aid quake victims in Kobe, Japan. They know the feeling. Last January, many of them suffered severe damage in the Northridge quake. Some lost their homes and still haven't moved back. "We went through that trauma ourselves," said Farida Nassery, the director of elementary programs at the private school in Chatsworth. "We really feel for the Japanese."

The ordeal of 300,000 refugees from Japan's massive earthquake eased somewhat Friday, with relief finally flowing into the stricken port of Kobe and other devastated areas. For the first time since the Tuesday quake, deliveries of food and other relief goods increased, with aid convoys arriving in Kobe every few minutes. Grocery stores reopened, inspectors began to decree damaged buildings unsafe, and workers started carting away the rubble left by the killer temblor.

The western port city of Kobe remained virtually paralyzed today in the wake of the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 1,800 people, sent as many as 150,000 seeking refuge and laid waste to assurances that modern construction technology protects city dwellers in Japan from major seismic damage. In what Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama called Japan's most devastating tremor since the Great Tokyo Earthquake of 1923, police today put the death toll at 1,817, with 926 missing and 11,182 injured.

Japan's worst earthquake in almost 50 years came near the crush zone of four continent-sized pieces of the Earth's surface, where the underlying faults are even more complicated and potentially hazardous than in Southern California. Scientists knowledgeable about plate tectonics call the area the "messiest" place in the world. Powerful temblors are common as the plates are ripped apart and heated, with shocks normally striking much deeper beneath the surface than they do along the West Coast.