Koji Yamaguchi, a 38-year-old schoolteacher in Kobe, has made it his mission to share his experiences of two catastrophes with younger generations.

He grew up in Hyogo Prefecture and went on to attend university in Miyagi Prefecture, each home to communities devastated by large-scale natural disasters.

※I have a responsibility to speak as someone who has lived in both places,§ Yamaguchi says. He now passes on his memories to students who did not live through either the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake or the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.