本震発生時刻、現場で祈り　橋崩落で犠牲の学生遺族―熊本地震５年

　震災関連死を含め２７６人が犠牲になった熊本地震は１６日、２度目の震度７を記録した本震から５年を迎えた。崩落した熊本県南阿蘇村の旧阿蘇大橋付近では、土砂崩れに巻き込まれ亡くなった阿蘇市の大学生大和晃さん＝当時（２２）＝の遺族が本震発生時刻に合わせて黙とうをささげ、冥福を祈った。
　晃さんの遺体が見つかった谷底を見下ろす道路の脇には、アスファルトの破片で組まれた高さ数十センチの祭壇がある。下流側に目をやると、開通した新阿蘇大橋の街灯が暗闇に浮かび上がっていた。父卓也さん（６２）と母忍さん（５３）、兄翔吾さん（２８）ら５人は午前１時に訪れ献花。晃さんが好きだったチョコ菓子や炭酸飲料、たばこを供え、線香に火を付けた。（2021/04/16-10:57）

Family members of a university student who lost his life in a landslide caused by one of powerful earthquakes that hit mainly Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan, in 2016 mourned for him on Friday, the fifth anniversary of the main quake.
   The family of Hikaru Yamato, then 22, observed five minutes of silence at around 1:25 a.m. (4:25 p.m. Thursday GMT), the time when the 7.3-magnitude main quake occurred five years ago, measuring up to 7, the highest grade on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, near the now-defunct Aso Ohashi bridge in the village of Minamiaso, which collapsed due to the quake.
   At around 1 a.m., five people, including, Yamato's father, Takuya, 62, his mother, Shinobu, 53, and his older brother, Shogo, 28, placed flowers on an altar, made up of broken pieces of asphalt, on the side of a road overlooking a ravine where Yamato's body was discovered.
   After placing Yamato's favorite chocolate snacks, carbonated drink and a pack of cigarette, the five lit incense sticks, with the weather growing chillier.
   "I wonder if it was also cold five years ago," Takuya said. "I don't think my feelings (about Yamato's death) will ever change. Not in five years. Not in 20 years."