Sunflowers that students in Aichi Prefecture cultivated from seeds originally grown at the home of a 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake victim were displayed during a memorial ceremony on Jan. 17, marking the 25th anniversary of the disaster.
Students of Chisato Junior High School and Shinshiro High School in Shinshiro, Aichi Prefecture, grew the sunflowers from the seeds of Haruka's Sunflowers, named after 11-year-old Haruka Kato of Kobe, who died in the 1995 earthquake after she was trapped in her collapsed home.
Sunflowers later bloomed at the place where Kato's home used to stand. Seeds from those sunflowers were planted in many places in the Kansai region and were given to survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake.