BACKYARD EVACUEES. Hirosuke Shimada (46) carry a jerrycan as his wife Yuka (45) and daughters Tsugumi (3), Nana (14) and Mizuki (16) sit inside a tent in front of their house to have lunch as they are concerned about aftershocks after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Japan's southern Kumamoto prefecture, amid water outages in the area during a heatwave, in Yatsushiro, Japan, July 30, 2026.
Issei Kato/REUTERS
For thousands of survivors — especially those living near the epicenter in places like Yatsushiro — psychological and financial scars will endure long after the initial disaster
YATSUSHIRO, Japan – Hirosuke Shimada’s home emerged largely unscathed from this week’s earthquake in southwestern Japan, but the violent shaking left him, his wife and their three daughters too frightened to sleep inside, forcing them to live in a tent in the front yard.
Across town, carpenter Makoto Sawatari surveyed crumbling plaster, smashed roof tiles and cracked windows, wondering how much it would cost to rebuild his home in the coastal city of Yatsushiro, a decade after another major earthquake damaged it.
