Quake-hit Kumamoto vows to step up reconstruction on 2nd anniversary

Local residents renewed their commitment on Saturday to increase efforts at reconstruction two years after devastating earthquakes in the southwestern Japan prefectures of Kumamoto and Oita left more than 250 people dead and over 35,000 still displaced.A magnitude 6.5 quake on April 14, 2016, and a M7.3 temblor two days later in Japan's southwestern Kyushu region forced the evacuation of more than 190,000 people at one point."I was able to live until now as a member of the community, supported by strong bonds of neighbors, friends, relatives and my sisters," Ryoko Matsuno, representing the …READ FULL ARTICLE