Aftershocks rippled¹ across the southern island of Kyushu on Sunday after a magnitude 7.3 disaster killed 41 people and brought the area’s high-tech² manufacturing industry to a halt.

上周日，多起余震在位于日本南端的整个九州岛不断扩散。此前，一场里氏7.3级的地震导致41人丧生，并让该地区的高科技制造业陷入停顿。

In addition to the confirmed fatalities³, more than 1,000 people were injured and 184,000 evacuated⁴ from their homes. In a graphic⁵ illustration of the earthquake’s power, the Great Aso Bridge — a single span of 206m opened in 1970 — collapsed⁶ into the ravine of the Black River below.

除了已确认的死亡情况外，还有逾1000人受伤，18.4万人被疏散至住房以外。长206米、1970年通车的单孔大桥阿苏大桥(Great Aso Bridge)崩塌，坠入了下方黑川(Black River)深邃的峡谷中，此次地震的破坏力可见一斑。

Kumamoto city, close to the epicentre, has a large semiconductor⁷ industry, while manufacturers such as Sony and Honda also have factories in the region. The quake left companies scrambling⁸ to determine the damage to their plants, sparking fears of disruption to the global supply chain. A shortage of parts out of Kyushu forced Toyota to begin temporary shutdowns at car plants across the country.

靠近震中的熊本市(Kumamoto city)拥有庞大的半导体工业，索尼(Sony)和本田(Honda)等制造商也在该地区建有工厂。地震令各企业慌忙确认工厂受到的损害，引发了全球供应链被打断的担忧。九州岛配件供应短缺迫使丰田(Toyota)在全日本的汽车工厂启动了临时的停产措施。

Sony halted production of image sensors¹⁰ — which are used in Apple’s iPhones and other smartphone cameras — at its Kumamoto plant after the first quake on Thursday. Production lines at two other image sensor⁹ plants in nearby Nagasaki and Oita were restored on Sunday. Sony declined to comment on whether it could make up for the lost capacity by shifting production to its other plants.

上周四发生首次地震后，索尼暂停了熊本工厂的图像传感器生产，这种传感器被用于苹果(Apple)的iPhone和其他智能手机的摄像头上。上周日，位于附近长崎和大分的另外两处图像传感器工厂的生产线已恢复运行。对于是否能通过把生产转移至其他工厂来弥补产能方面的损失，索尼拒绝置评。

Japanese companies have learnt lessons from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami¹¹, when car factories from Nagoya to Alabama ground to a standstill after production halted at Renesas, a supplier of microcontrollers used in vehicles worldwide.

日本企业已经从2011年发生在东北地方的地震和海啸中吸取教训。当时，在瑞萨(Renesas)停产后，从名古屋到美国阿拉巴马州的汽车工厂都陷入停顿。瑞萨是一家微控制器供应商，全球的汽车都使用其产品。

This time Renesas stopped its plant in Kumamoto but said the building’s exterior¹² was not heavily damaged after it strengthened the structure’s quake resistance. It also keeps a certain level of inventories¹³ to sustain production. Renesas has, however, been unable to check inside the plant because of continued aftershocks.

这次地震瑞萨关闭了在熊本的工厂，不过该公司表示其工厂建筑的外部并未遭遇严重损坏，原因是此前该公司加强了该建筑的防震能力。该公司还保持了一定量的存货以维持生产。不过，由于持续不断的余震，瑞萨未能检查工厂内部的情况。

The Kyushu region has attracted such manufacturers in part because it is supposedly less prone¹⁴ to earthquakes. A local government homepage to recruit companies proudly claims that the region has not suffered a quake above magnitude 7 for the past 120 years.

九州地区会吸引这类制造商，部分是由于该地区原本不那么容易受地震影响。当地政府的一个招商网页曾骄傲地宣称，过去120年该地区从未出现7级以上的地震。

Toyota, which has already halted operations at three plants in Kyushu, said that, due to parts shortages, it would suspend production lines at other domestic assembly plants in stages between April 18 and 23. The measure would affect a wide range of models including the Camry, Corolla and Prius.

丰田已关闭了位于九州岛的三家工厂的运营。该公司表示，由于配件短缺，该公司会在4月18日到23日之间，分阶段暂停其他日本国内装配厂的生产线。这一措施或影响包括凯美瑞(Camry)、卡罗拉(Corolla)和普锐斯(Prius)在内的大批车型。

Honda said it had reduced its dependence¹⁵ on any single supplier and reinforced factory buildings so they can withstand strong earthquakes. It has suspended a motorcycle plant in Kumamoto due to damaged sewer¹⁶ pipes and lighting¹⁷ systems, but said the building remained intact.

本田表示已经减少对任何单个供应商的依赖，并加固了厂房建筑使其能够经受住强烈地震。该公司在熊本的一处摩托车厂因为污水管道和照明系统受损而暂停运转，但该公司表示厂房建筑完好无损。

The island’s shinkansen high-speed railway was suspended and its two main motorways¹⁸ were cut in several places by landslides¹⁹. Nothing abnormal was reported at any nuclear plant.

九州岛新干线高速铁路暂停运营，两条主要的高速公路因山体滑坡有多处阻断。没有关于任何核电站的异常报告。

Experts were repeatedly forced to reassess the nature of the disaster as the death toll²⁰ from Japan’s worst earthquake since 2011 rose. With rain falling and more in prospect²¹, officials warned residents to beware of landslides, as well as further earthquakes.

这场日本自2011年以来遭遇的最强地震的死亡人数不断上升，专家们不得不一再重新评估此次灾难的性质。由于目前的降雨和未来的降雨前景，政府官员提醒居民警惕山体滑坡以及更多地震。

“As of now, lively earthquake activity is continuing from Kumamoto to Oita prefectures,” said Gen Aoki, head of earthquake and tsunami observation at the Japan Meteorological Agency, on Sunday. “There is an ongoing²² possibility of ground slips from more strong tremors²⁴ or the rain since yesterday.”

“目前，从熊本到大分县一带，活跃的地震活动还在持续，”日本气象厅(JMA)地震津波监视课课长青木元(Gen Aoki)上周日表示，“仍然存在一种可能性，即更多的强震或自昨天开始的降雨会造成地面滑移。”

After a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck on Thursday, officials were taken aback when a 16-times more powerful magnitude 7.3 quake hit in the early hours of Saturday, leading them to reclassify the earlier quake as a pre-shock.

上周四发生6.5级地震后，上周六凌晨发生的7.3级地震让官员们大吃一惊，后者的强度是前者的16倍，官员们将此前的那次地震重新界定为前震。

Tremors kept spreading to the north-east, striking in three different zones of active faults — a pattern the JMA said was “unprecedented²⁵”. By Sunday, it had detected more than 400 tremors since the event began.

震动持续向日本东北部传播，影响三个不同的活动断层区域——日本气象厅称这种模式“史无前例”。截至上周日，日本气象厅监测到自此次地震以来的400多次余震。

Tomoki Nishikawa, president of the Sakurajuji Hospital in Kumamoto, which has been treating those injured in the disaster as public hospitals overflowed²⁶, said that although Kumamoto felt it had survived the first quake in fairly good shape, in the aftermath of the second, much larger tremor²³, “the city kind of died”.

由于公立医院人满为患，熊本樱十字医院(Sakurajuji Hospital)一直在帮助救治灾难伤者，该院理事长西川朋希(Tomoki Nishikawa)表示，尽管熊本市在第一次地震后状态相当良好，在震级高得多的第二次地震以后，“这座城市可以算是死亡了”。

“I was driving around the city and in certain parts, you can see that 30 per cent of the homes are uninhabitable now. The city is still shaking and people have changed their attitudes since the second quake. They have seen crushed houses and they don’t want to go back to their own homes,” he said.

“我开车在城市中四处转，在某些地方，你可以看到30%的房屋现在不适合居住。这座城市还在震动，人们在第二次地震后改变了态度。他们看到了挤压变形的房屋，不愿意回到自己的住所，”他说。