UNIVERSIDAD TECNOLÓGICA DEL PERÚ

Inglés III

TRABAJO FINAL

“Entrevista al Ing. Julio Kuroiwa Horiuchi”

PARTICIPANTE:

VALDIVIEZO PALMA, Kelsen Rolando U20302339

Huarmey, octubre 04 del 2020

 INTERVIEW WITH ENGINEER JULIO KUROIWA HORIUCHI

Julio Kuroiwa Horuichi, civil engineer graduated from the National University of
Engineering specialized in seismology. He is dedicated to protecting the lives and
health of the poorest Peruvians by trying to reduce the enormous economic losses
caused by natural phenomena. His mentors were Charles Ritcher himself, creator
of the scale that measures the magnitude of earthquakes and that bears his name,
and George Housner, father of Earthquake Engineering in the United States, his
professor and friend.

R: Hello, good morning, Eng. Julio Kuroiwa. He thinks he can give us a

few minutes of his time.

E: Good morning... Sure, it is always a pleasure to share with you.

R: ¿Where are you from?

E: I am from Peru.

R: ¿When were you born?

E: I was born in 1936. on April 22.

R: And who were your parents, what did they do for a living?

E: My parents were Elvira Horiuchi and Tamehiro Kuroiwa. My father changed

his name to Juan Kuroiwa when he came to Peru from his hometown in
Fukuoka, where he worked as a businessman and my mother as a
housewife. He died at the age of 54, when I was only 14 years old.

R: And in which schools in our country did you study?

E: I did my primary studies in the Fiscal School No. 463, from where, thanks
to the scholarship for all the first places in the fiscal schools, I was able to
enter the Our Lady of Guadalupe School - Lima. After finishing high school,
I entered the Faculty of Civil Engineering at UNI, graduating with the first
place.

R: Tell us, did you ever imagine being considered as "The father of
Peruvian seismic engineering"?

E: Not really, because at first, I didn´t want to study seismic engineering. At

some point I decided to study agronomy sciences, because when I was a
teenager I harvested rice, and in San Luis this sector was deteriorated.

R: But tell me then, if you didn´t plan to become a seismic engineer, what
made you change your mind?

E: In principle, witnessing the devastation caused by 17 earthquakes in the

American continent, as well as those that occurred in China and Japan. The
one that moved me the most was the one that occurred in our country in
1970, in Yungay - Ancash.

R: Within your trajectory, do you remember any moment with emotion?

E: Of course, it was in 1990 in Geneva, Switzerland, when I received the

United Nations Sasakawa Award for disaster prevention. And when I
returned to Peru and they took me to the Guadalupe School, where I was
able to tour its facilities with great nostalgia and remember great moments.

R: At present, in your experience, what would be the main need of our

population in terms of natural disaster prevention?

E: In my experience, the lack of knowledge imparted by our authorities within

schools and universities on natural disaster prevention is the main breaking
 point. Even more knowing that our country is located in a seismic zone, and
not learning from the precedents we already have and where many
compatriots lost their lives.

R: Engineer, anything else you can add?

E: Yes, as a vulnerable population "We must learn to interpret the signals that
nature gives us".

R: Without further ado, it only remains for us to thank you for your time
and for the experiences shared for the welfare of research in our
country.

E: Thank you, see you soon.