The temblor destroyed Tokyo, Yokohama, and surrounding areas. Stunned survivors of the earthquake, tsunami, and firestorm looked for an explanation or a scapegoat, and the target of their fury was the ethnic Koreans living in their midst. Evacuees were transported by ship from Kant to as far as Kobe in Kansai. Otis Manchester Poole, a 43-year-old American manager of a trading firm, stepped out of his largely still-intact office near the Bund to face an indelible scene. [27] American Acting Consul General Max David Kirjassoff and his wife Alice Josephine Ballantine Kirjassoff died in the earthquake. Nobel nominee Junicho Tanizaki, who spent two years in Yokohama writing screenplays, marveled at a riot of loud Western colors and smellsthe odor of cigars, the aroma of chocolate, the fragrance of flowers, the scent of perfume.. Post-earthquake Bridge Construction, Tokyo, c. 1932. Samuel Robinson, the Canadian skipper of the Empress of Australia, took hundreds of refugees aboard, organized a fire brigade that kept the ship from being incinerated by advancing flames, then steered the crippled vessel to safety in the outer harbor. The destruction of the US embassy caused Ambassador Cyrus Woods to relocate the embassy to the hotel. Unfortunately, the title is terribly misleading as he spent about 4 paragraphs on how it lead to WWII. Over 570,000 homes were destroyed, leaving an estimated 1.9 million homeless. The death toll would be about 140,000, including 44,000 who had sought refuge near Tokyos Sumida River in the first few hours, only to be immolated by a freak pillar of fire known as a dragon twist. The temblor destroyed two of Japans largest cities and traumatized the nation; it also whipped up nationalist and racist passions. The date was September 1, 1923, and the event was the Great Kanto Earthquake, at the time considered the worst natural disaster ever to strike quake-prone Japan. The importance of obtaining and providing accurate information following natural disasters has been emphasized in Japan ever since. J. Charles Schenck, "The Great Kanto Earthquake and the Culture of Catastrophe and Reconstruction in 1920s Japan", Last edited on 15 November 2022, at 21:46, "Source process of the 1923 Kanto earthquake inferred from historical geodetic, teleseismic, and strong motion data", "The energy release in great earthquakes", "Fault models of the 1703 Genroku and 1923 Taisho Kanto earthquakes inferred from coastal movements in the southern Kanto erea", "Tsunami Behavior of the 1923 Kanto Earthquake at Atami and Hatsushima Island in Sagami Bay", "Aftershock Activities for Two Days after the 1923 Kanto Earthquake (M=7.9) Inferred from Seismograms at Gifu Observatory", "Mortality Estimation by Causes of Death Due to the 1923 Kanto Earthquake", "Magnitude and location of historical earthquakes in Japan and implications for the 1855 Ansei Edo earthquake", "English: THIS IS AN IMAGE THAT IS PART OF A RAW IMAGE COLLECTIONGreat care should be taken to remove whitespace and captions before using these in a Wiki project. The Great Kanto Earthquake triggered another horrifying result. Japan scholar Kenneth Pyle of the University of Washington says that conservative elites were already nervous about democratic forces emerging in society, and the 1923 earthquake does sort of begin to reverse some of the liberal tendencies that appear right after World War I.After the earthquake, theres a measurable increase in right-wing patriotic groups in Japan that are really the groundwork of what is called Japanese fascism. Peter Duus, an emeritus professor of history at Stanford, states that it was not the earthquake that kindled right-wing activities, but rather the growth of the metropolis and the emergence of what the right wing regarded as heartless, hedonistic, individualistic and materialist urban culture. The more significant long-term effect of the earthquake, he says, was that it set in motion the first systematic attempt at reshaping Tokyo as a modern city. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/the-great-kanto-earthquake-195143. Yokohama Burning is the story of the worst natural disaster of the twentieth century: the earthquakes, fires, and tsunamis of September 1923 that destroyed Yokohama and most of Tokyo and killed 140,000 people during two days of horror. Corrections? [citation needed] In some towns, even police stations into which Korean people had escaped were attacked by mobs, whereas in other neighborhoods, civilians took steps to protect them. Regular contributor Joshua Hammer is the author of Yokohama Burning, about the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. No center symbolized the countrys dynamism more than Yokohama, known as the City of Silk. Updates? [50] Wright's structure withstood the anticipated earthquake stresses, and the hotel remained in use until 1968. To report the devastation of September 1, 1923, Gounadoptedthe traditional horizontal format of episodes linked by text. [13] Extensive firestorms and even a fire whirl added to the death toll. 5 File Number 131-600, "Collection of 1923 Japan earthquake massacre testimonies released", "Ethnic Korean filmmaker ends 30-year hiatus to tackle massacreThe Asahi Shimbun", "The Big Ones by Lucy Jones | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books", "The Great Earthquake and Fire in Japan: An Interpretation", "The 1923 Kant earthquake reevaluated using a newly augmented geodetic data set", 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake Fire Tornado Video, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1923_Great_Kant_earthquake&oldid=1122104992, Aldrich, Daniel P. "Social, not physical, infrastructure: the critical role of civil society after the 1923 Tokyo earthquake. Three hundred people died in Kamakura, the ancient capital, when a 20-foot-high wave washed over the town. And the quake may have emboldened right-wing forces at the very moment that the country was poised between military expansion and an embrace of Western democracy, only 18 years before Japan would enter World War II. Ethnic Koreans were massacred after the earthquake. Roving bands of Japanese prowled the ruins of Yokohama and Tokyo, setting up makeshift roadblocks and massacring Koreans across the earthquake zone. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture. ThoughtCo, Aug. 28, 2020, thoughtco.com/the-great-kanto-earthquake-195143. The initial jolt was followed a few minutes later by a 40-foot-high tsunami. The date was September 1, 1923, and the event was the Great Kanto Earthquake, at the time considered the worst natural disaster ever to strike quake-prone Japan. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. Because the earthquake struck when people were cooking meals, many were killed as a result of large fires that broke out. Every year on this date, schools across Japan take a moment of silence at the precise time the earthquake hit in memory of the lives lost. At two minutes to noon on Saturday, September 1, 1923, life in the two cities was humming along at its usual pace. Fuel, food and water were hard to come by weeks after the earthquake, and the Japanese government acknowledged that it had been ill-prepared for a calamity on this scale. When these cleared away fire could be seen starting in many directions and in half an hour the whole city was in flames. As early as mid-afternoon on September 1, the day of the quake, reports, and rumors started that the Koreans had set the disastrous fires, were poisoning wells, looting ruined homes, and planning to overthrow the government. The outbreak of World War II and subsequent destruction severely limited resources. Reconstruction Memorial Hall for the Kanto Earthquake Disaster, Ryogoku, Tokyo The Great Kanto Earthquake was a massive earthquake in Japan that originated just off the south-west coast of Tokyo, in Sagami Bay, at 11:58 a.m. on Saturday, September 1, 1923. Though they may dispute its effects, historians agree that the destruction of two great population centers gave voice to those in Japan who believed that the embrace of Western decadence had invited divine retribution. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. [35] Moreover, anyone mistakenly identified as Korean, such as Chinese, Ryukyuans, and Japanese speakers of some regional dialects, suffered the same fate. The numerous fires and cloudy well water, a little-known effect of a large quake, all seemed to confirm the rumors of the panic-stricken survivors who were living amidst the rubble. The Aftermath - The Great Kant Earthquake.com Relief and Recovery The Aftermath General Yamanashi Hanz, the individual appointed to direct Japan's Martial Law Headquarters on 20 September 1923, was no stranger to demanding administrative or military tasks. The tsunami caused many deaths, including about 100 people along Yui-ga-hama Beach in Kamakura and an estimated 50 people on the Enoshima causeway. Parks were placed all over Tokyo as refuge spots, and public buildings were constructed with stricter standards than private buildings to accommodate refugees. About 140,000 people fell victim to this earthquake and the . Japan's ancient capital atKamakura, almost 40 miles from the epicenter, was inundated by a 20-foot wave that killed 300 people, and its 84-ton Great Buddha was shifted by roughly 3 feet. The Hashou's mansion is destroyed, leading to an emotional confrontation between Akiko and Saionji; meanwhile, Sara's humble house in the suburbia is also destroyed and her and Junichirou's mother dies of injuries she sustained in the earthquake. On this day in 1923, a great fire sweeps through the streets and narrow alleyways of Tokyo. The jolt struck at 11:58 am, when many residents were cooking their lunches over open fires. The death toll from the temblor was estimated to have exceeded 140,000. Nishimura Goun (18771938),a Kyoto painter known for his soft, lyrical renderings of birds, fish, animals, andflowers, turned to the earthquake as the subject for this handscroll, which he completed two years afterward. Only magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquakes appear on the list. It narrowly survived and assisted in rescuing 2000 survivors. Only 300 of the people gathered there survived. A P&O liner, Dongola, was also in the harbor at the moment of disaster and rescued 505 people, taking them to Kobe.[30]. Hours after the earthquake, Yonemura picked up a faint signal from a naval station near Yokohama, relaying word of the catastrophe. (Kanto is the name of the geographical area of which Tokyo forms the center). September 1, 1923, 11:58 a.m. [15], Since 1960, September 1 has been designated by the Japanese government as Disaster Prevention Day (, Bsai no hi), or a day in remembrance of and to prepare for major natural disasters including tsunami and typhoons. They largely consist of interviews with survivors, witnesses, and perpetrators. In reconstructing the city, the nation, and the Japanese people, the earthquake fostered a culture of catastrophe and reconstruction that amplified discourses of moral degeneracy and national renovation in interwar Japan.[49]. The cities of Tokyo and Yokohama, and surrounding towns and villages, have been largely if not completely destroyed by earthquake, fire and flood, with a resultant appalling loss of life and destitution and distress, requiring measures of urgent relief. The American Red Cross, of which Coolidge was the titular head, initiated a national relief drive, raising $12 million for victims. Detail, Scenes of the 1923 Earthquake; F1975.12. For the city was gone., The tragedy prompted countless acts of heroism. In Makiko Hirata's josei manga and anime Kasei Yakyoku the story finishes some time after the earthquake, as a corollary to the main love triangle between the noblewoman Akiko Hashou, her lover Taka Itou, and Akiko's personal maid Sara Uchida. During this period, soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army, police and vigilantes murdered an estimated 6,000 ethnic Koreans and Japanese socialists. [33][34] The Home Ministry declared martial law and ordered all sectional police chiefs to make maintenance of order and security a top priority. Many homes were buried or swept away by landslides in the mountainous and hilly coastal areas in western Kanagawa Prefecture; about 800 people died. Joshua Hammer I saw a thirty-foot sampan [boat] that had been lifted neatly on top of the roof of a prostrated house. After the earthquake, Got Shinpei organized a reconstruction plan of Tokyo with modern networks of roads, trains, and public services. [citation needed] According to the Japanese construction company Kajima Kobori Research's conclusive report of September 2004, 105,385 deaths were confirmed in the 1923 quake.[20][21][13]. [55], Maurice Tourneur's 1924 silent film Torment has an earthquake in Yokohama in its plot, and uses footage of the Kant earthquake in the film.[56]. Schools and public and private organizations host disaster drills. Flames surrounded them, and at about 4 p.m., a "fire tornado" some 300 feet tall roared through the area. The quake struck at 11:58 a.m., so many people were cooking lunch. Messervey, letter dated March 5, 1924. A strong typhoon centered off the coast of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture brought high winds to Tokyo Bay at about the same time as the earthquake. Earthquake preparation literature in modern Japan almost always directs citizens to carry a portable radio and use it to listen to reliable information, and not to be misled by rumors in the event of a large earthquake. Aria's birth mother is severely injured by debris and later dies, and this triggers a subplot about Aria's own heritage. The radio man flashed the news across the sea at the speed of sunlight, reported the New York Times, to tell of tremendous casualties, buildings leveled by fire, towns swept by tidal wavesdisorder by rioters, raging fire and wrecked bridges.. The damage from this natural disaster was one of the greatest sustained by Imperial Japan. Go Nagai's manga Violence Jack is set in a scenario in which a gigantic earthquake called 'The Great Kanto Hellquake', reminiscent of the 1923 earthquake, devastates Tokyo and severs the Kanto region from the rest of Japan, as well as cutting it off from the outside world. Fires started immediately after the earthquake. The earthquake, he has written, fostered a culture of catastrophe defined by political and ideological opportunism, contestation and resilience, as well as a culture of reconstruction in which elites sought to not only rebuild Tokyo, but also reconstruct the Japanese nation and its people.. Every year on the same date, drills and other activities are held across . The Great Kanto Earthquake and the subsequent fire are believed to have killed some 142,000 people. Cookie Settings, Rue des Archives / The Granger Collection, New York, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts, The Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird, Archaeologists Discover 4,300-Foot-Long Tunnel Under Ancient Egyptian Temple, The Mesoamerican Influences Behind Talokan King Namor From 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever', Scientists Suggest a New Layer to Crows Cognitive Complexity, Archaeologists Find 24 Bronze Statues, Preserved in Tuscan Spa for 2,300 Years, Meet the Rare Gender-Neutral Kitten With No Sex Organs. The powerful quake and ensuing tsunami that struck Yokohama and Tokyo traumatized a nation and unleashed historic consequences. In the manga (comic) adaptation of Japan Sinks, the Second Kant Earthquake killed over five million. The quake destroyed the citys water mains, paralyzing the fire department. Tokyo and surrounding areas suffered heavily both in human and material terms. ThoughtCo. Fire and tremors together claimed 90% of the homes in Yokohama and left 60% of Tokyo's people homeless. In one scene in the book, Japan Sinks (by Sakyo Komatsu), due to the fast-moving subduction of the Pacific and Eurasian plates, the Sagami Trough ruptures in a magnitude-8.5 earthquake, killing several million people in Tokyo and other areas, causing major tsunamis, and creating major firestorms. [28] The consulate itself lost the entirety of its records in the subsequent fires.[29]. Although both were devastated, the city of Yokohama was hit even worse than Tokyo. Henry W. Kinney, an editor forTrans-Pacific Magazinewho worked out of Tokyo, was in Yokohama when the disaster struck. [36] In the confusion after the quake, mass murder of Koreans by mobs occurred in urban Tokyo and Yokohama, fueled by rumors of rebellion and sabotage. [48] Proposed sites for the new capital were even discussed. The epicenter was placed in Sagami Bay, just southwest of Tokyo Bay. People fled toward the Sumida River, drowning by the hundreds when bridges collapsed. [18], This earthquake devastated Tokyo, the port city of Yokohama, and the surrounding prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, and Shizuoka, and caused widespread damage throughout the Kant region. [22] Some fires developed into firestorms[23][24][25] that swept across cities. Destruction in Yokohama following the 1923 Earthquake and Typhoon. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. In the ancient capital of Kamakura, a twenty-foot wave killed some three hundred people and shifted the citys Great Buddhaweighing in at 121 tonsbymore than a foot. Yokohama Burning by Joshua Hammer Update: a really great read and detailed examination of the 1923 earthquake that destroyed Yokohama and Tokyo. A collapsing mountainside in the village of Nebukawa, west of Odawara, pushed the entire village and a passenger train carrying over 100 passengers, along with the railway station, into the sea. According to some estimates, the death toll was as high as 6,000. [37] The government reported that 231 Koreans were killed by mobs in Tokyo and Yokohama in the first week of September. The earthquake and its aftershocks caused several fires to break out in the city. The wave of good feeling between the two countries would soon dissipate, however, in mutual accusations. Meanwhile, a wall of water surged from the fault zone toward the coast of Honshu. Dr. Kallie Szczepanski is a history teacher specializing in Asian history and culture. Then came fires, roaring through the wooden houses of Yokohama and Tokyo, the capital, burning everythingand everyonein their path. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Although both were devastated, the city of Yokohama was hit even worse than Tokyo. "The Changing Character of Disaster Victimhood: Evidence from Japan's 'Great Earthquakes'. The result is an odd union of harsh subject matter and his signature gentle style. On midday, September 1, 1923, the city of Tokyo and its surrounding areas were hit with a magnitude 8.3 earthquake. A series of towering waves swept away thousands of people. Over everything had settled a thick white dust, he remembered years later, and through the yellow fog of dust, still in the air, a copper-coloured sun shone upon this silent havoc in sickly reality. Fanned by high winds, fires from overturned cookstoves and ruptured gas mains spread. See also: 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake Post-earthquake Bridge Construction, Tokyo, c. 1932. An explanation is the decline of waste disposal, which became particularly serious in the northern and western districts when traditional methods of waste disposal collapsed due to urbanization. The single greatest loss of life was caused by a fire whirl that engulfed the Rikugun Honjo Hifukusho (formerly the Army Clothing Depot) in downtown Tokyo, where about 38,000 people were incinerated after taking shelter there after the earthquake. Szczepanski, Kallie. Japan, 1923 Section of The Interior of the Museum. Vast portions of the hills facing the ocean had slid into the sea.. The 1923 earthquake led to record-high morbidity due to unsanitary conditions following the earthquake, and it prompted the establishment of antityphoid measures and the building of urban infrastructure. It moved Tokyo into the ranks of world metropolises., University of Melbourne historian J. Charles Schencking sees the rebuilding of Tokyo as a metaphor for something larger. Sara is in the streets, and Taka is taking Sara's brother Junichirou to a hospital after he was injured in a yakuza-related incident. Ultimately, the disaster sparked both soul-searching and nationalism in Japan. "I enclose also a photo of the ruins of the Grand Hotel at Yokohama where I stopped last year." J.H. Attracting entrepreneurs, fugitives, traders, spies and drifters from every corner of the world, the port rose like a mirage in the desert, wrote one Japanese novelist. "The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 shocked the nation. Advertising Notice [32] There were 57 aftershocks. | READ MORE. [44] Socialists such as Hirasawa Keishichi[ja] (), anarchists such as Sakae sugi and Noe It, and the Chinese communal leader, Kiten[ja] (), were abducted and killed by local police and Imperial Army, who claimed the radicals intended to use the crisis as an opportunity to overthrow the Japanese government. The 1923 earthquake led to record-high morbidity due to unsanitary conditions following the earthquake, and it prompted the establishment of antityphoid measures and the building of urban infrastructure. The date was September 1, 1923, and the event was the Great Kanto Earthquake, at the time considered the worst natural disaster ever to strike quake-prone Japan. The Great Kanto Earthquake obliterated all of that in a single afternoon. The earthquake and the fire resulted in a terrible loss of life. The SS Dongola's captain reported that, while he was anchored in Yokohama's inner harbor: At 11.55 a.m. ship commenced to tremble and vibrate violently and on looking towards the shore it was seen that a terrible earthquake was taking place, buildings were collapsing in all directions and in a few minutes nothing could be seen for clouds of dust. [52] Following the devastation of the earthquake, some in the government considered the possibility of moving the capital elsewhere. The earthquake damaged the ship's hull beyond repair, leading it to be scrapped, and the unfinished fast battleship Kaga was converted into an aircraft carrier in its place. Japanese expressed resentment toward Western rescuers; demagogues in the United States charged that the Japanese had been ungrateful for the outpouring of help they received. Then, as in Yokohama, fires spread, fueled by flimsy wooden houses and fanned by high winds. On September 1, 1923, the biggest earthquakes in world history shook the Kanto Plain. See all related content Tokyo-Yokohama earthquake of 1923, also called Great Kanto earthquake, earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 that struck the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolitan area near noon on September 1, 1923. In the weeks to follow, Japanese of?ficials began tallying the number of killed and missing in the earthquake, and resulting tsunami and fires, and counted more than 140,000 people killed or presumably dead. Kanto earthquake 1923; main shocks; North Pacific; Northwest Pacific; observations; Pacific Ocean; West Pacific; Latitude . A series of towering waves swept away thousands of people. Tens of thousands of working-class Japanese found refuge in an empty patch of ground near the river. Michiyo Akaishi's josei manga Akatsuki no Aria features the earthquake in volume 8. The north shore of Sagami Bay rose permanently by almost 6 feet, and parts of the Boso Peninsula moved 15 feet laterally. What was destroyed and what did it look like before the catastrophe.Item title reads. Some discreet memorials are located in Yokoamicho Park in Sumida Ward, at the site of the open space in which an estimated 38,000 people were killed by a single fire whirl. The magnitude of its destruction was almost beyond imagining. In 1960, on the 37th anniversary of the quake, the government declared September 1 an annual "Disaster Prevention Day". Down at the docks of Yokohama, Japans biggest port and its gateway to the West, hundreds of well-wishers were seeing off the Empress of Australia, a 615-foot luxury steamship bound for Vancouver. Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, the plot takes place in a way station for those who have just died. According to one police report, fires had broken out in 83 locations by 12:15. Japan, September 1923. ", Borland, Janet. An estimated 15,000 people were killed. An international merchant fleet, an early harbinger of globalization, floated in Yokohama harbor and loaded tea and silk on the docks. The initial jolt was followed a few minutes later by a 40-foot-high tsunami. "Newspapers provided recent information on the disaster, and magazines were able to explore issues in more depth, but their poor durability made them less desirable as permanent momentos of the earthquake. Nevertheless, there are parallels. (Japan had occupied Korea in 1905, annexed it five years later and ruled the territory with an iron grip.) Google Scholar. September 1, 2016 Scenes of the 1923 Earthquake One of the "Scenes of the 1923 Earthquake" by Japanese artist Nishimura Goun Ninety-three years ago today, the Great Kanto Earthquake rocked Japan, destroying Tokyo and Yokohama and wreaking widespread damage. In the long run, the response to the disaster was a strong sense that Japan had been given an unparalleled opportunity to rebuild the city and rebuild Japanese values. Like the 1923 quake, this one unleashed secondary disasters: a tsunami that washed away dozens of villages; mudslides; fires; and damage to the Fukushima Daiichi reactors that emitted radiation into the atmosphere (and constituted the worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986). After a brief time there, she's sent back to the already destroyed Tokyo, and she, alongside her soon-to-be love interest Seiji Horie and two young boys named Hideo and Kenichi, is taken in by a friend of the late Takao, Dr. Oikawa. From Washington, President Calvin Coolidge took the lead in rallying the United States. A massive magnitude-9.0 temblor struck off the coast of Sendai on March 11, 2011, itself producing some damage but also generating a series of devastating tsunamis along the coast of northeastern Japan. Cookie Policy The firestorms following the quake damaged almost 400,000 houses. [19], Estimated casualties totaled about 142,800 deaths, including about 40,000 who went missing and were presumed dead. Welcome to the National Museum of Asian Art. This is a list of earthquakes in 1923. The Great Kanto Earthquake, sometimes called the Great Tokyo Earthquake, rocked Japan on September 1, 1923. Thomas Ryan, a 22-year-old U.S. naval ensign, freed a woman trapped inside the Grand Hotel in Yokohama, then carried the victimwho had suffered two broken legsto safety, seconds ahead of a fire that engulfed the ruins. Soon, the entire city was ablaze. With cinematic vividness and from multiple perspectives, acclaimed Newsweek correspondent Joshua Hammer re-creates harrowing scenes of death, escape, and rescue. Postcards were an accessible commodity through We present you some footage of the earthquake disaster in 1923 in Japan. Or, as philosopher and social critic Fukasaku Yasubumi declared at the time: God cracked down a great hammer on the Japanese nation. The earthquake was followed by fires and tornados. The innovative design used to construct the Imperial Hotel, and its structural fortitude, inspired the creation of the popular Lincoln Logs toy.[51]. In Yasunari Kawabata's 1930 novel The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa several chapters deal with the Great Kant earthquake. The city of Yokohama following the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. A tsunami with waves up to 10m (33ft) high struck the coast of Sagami Bay, Bs Peninsula, Izu Islands, and the east coast of Izu Peninsula within minutes. The unfinished battlecruiser Amagi was in drydock being converted into an aircraft carrier in Yokosuka in compliance with the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. The Yokohama-Tokyo earthquake of September 1, 1923 T. A. Jaggar. In the historical fantasy novel Teito Monogatari (Hiroshi Aramata) a supernatural explanation is given for the cause of the Great Kant earthquake, connecting it with the principles of feng shui. "The Great Kanto Earthquake in Japan, 1923." A 300-foot-tall fire tornado, or dragon twist, torethrough an area nearTokyosSumida River where tens of thousandshad sought shelter from the chaos; only a few hundred survived. Of the 44,000 people who had gathered there, only 300 survived. Stay updated on the latest visitor information. 9- Great Tokyo Earthquake, Japan (1st Sept, 1923) The Kanto region in Japan's main Honshu island is where Tokyo and Yokohama are located. By the time the fire ended seventy-two hours later, almost fifty percent of the city was burnt, totaling thirty and a half square miles and 370,000 houses. Japanese commentators interpreted the disaster as an act of divine punishment to admonish the Japanese people for their self-centered, immoral, and extravagant lifestyles. More than 100,000 people died when the Great Kant Earthquake struck the Tokyo metropolitan area on September 1, 1923. The city of Yokohama was hit even worse than Tokyo was, although both were devastated. "Voices of vulnerability and resilience: children and their recollections in post-earthquake Tokyo. The RMS Empress of Australia was about to leave Yokohama harbor when the earthquake struck. Disaster struck at 11:58 on September 1st, 1923, just as families were gathering around the table for lunch. The Great Kant earthquake (, Kant dai-jishin; Kant -jishin)[11][12] struck the Kant Plain on the main Japanese island of Honsh at 11:58:44 JST (02:58:44 UTC) on Saturday, September 1, 1923. Another 47,000 were . In Oswald Wynd's novel The Ginger Tree, Mary Mackenzie survives the earthquake, and later bases her clothes designing company in one of the few buildings that remained standing in the aftermath. 2022 Smithsonian Magazine Joshua Hammer is a contributing writer to Smithsonian magazine and the author of several books, including The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts and The Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird. Joelle Seligson is digital editor at the Freer|Sackler. The offshore earthquake triggered a tsunami in the bay, which struck the island of Oshima at a height of 39 feet and hit the Izu and Boso Peninsulas with 20-foot waves. Then there was Taki Yonemura, chief engineer of the government wireless station in Iwaki, a small town 152 miles northeast of Tokyo. The Great Kanto Earthquake, also known as the Great Tokyo Earthquake, turned Tokyo into hell on earth about 75 years ago. Yonemuras bulletins helped to galvanize an international relief effort, led by the United States, that saved thousands from near-certain death or prolonged misery. Although the shock waves had weakened by the time they reached through the Kanto region to Tokyo, 17 miles north of Yokohama, many poorer neighborhoods built on unstable ground east of the Sumida River collapsed in seconds. More than half of the brick buildings and one-tenth of the reinforced concrete structures in the region collapsed. Within hours of the catastrophe, rumors spread that Korean immigrants were poisoning wells and using the breakdown of authority to plot the overthrow of the Japanese government. It was the deadliest earthquake in Japanese history. At that time Yuzuki was in Tokyo visiting a friend, causing Tamahiko to worry, and follow her to Tokyo. The smiles vanished, remembered Ellis M. Zacharias, then a young U.S. naval officer, who was standing on the pier when the earthquake hit, and for an appreciable instant everyone stood transfixed by the sound of unearthly thunder. Moments later, a tremendous jolt knocked Zacharias off his feet, and the pier collapsed, spilling cars and people into the water. In contrast to London, where typhoid fever had been steadily declining since the 1870s, the rate in Tokyo remained high, more so in the upper-class residential northern and western districts than in the densely populated working-class eastern district. All told, 45 percent of Tokyo burned before the last embers of the inferno died out on September 3. The death toll from the temblor was estimated to have exceeded 140,000. The earthquake also exposed the darker side of humanity. Founded as Japans first Foreign Settlement in 1859, five years after U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry forced the shogun to open Japan to the West, Yokohama had grown into a cosmopolitan city of half a million. A total of about140,000 people perished in the disaster. the Japanese economy in the Great Kant earthquake of 1923. [16] Drills, as well as knowledge promotion events, are centered around that date as well as awards ceremonies for people of merit.[17]. Nearly 100,000 people had died. Omissions? Of the 3,000 Koreans taken into custody at the Army Cavalry Regiment base in Narashino, Chiba Prefecture, 10% were killed at the base, or after being released into nearby villages. . [35] Anti-Korean sentiment was heightened by fear of the Korean independence movement. In the film adaptation of Japan Sinks, Nihon Chinbotsu, the Sagami Trough ruptures in a massive earthquake called "The Second Great Kanto Earthquake". [38] Independent reports said the number of dead was far higher, ranging from 6,000 to 10,000. ", Hunter, Janet. In both instances, the toll was considerable, with estimated deaths in the 2011 quake approaching 30,000 and damage that could go as high as $310 billion. Szczepanski, Kallie. A 60- by 60-mile segment of the Philippine oceanic plate ruptured and thrust itself against the Eurasian continental plate, releasing a massive burst of tectonic energy. An earthquake of 7.9 magnitude wreaked havoc in Tokyo, Yokohama, and neighboring areas, resulting into more than 142,800 deaths. Many people died when their feet became stuck on melting tarmac. Just moments after the initial shock, the wind significantly picked up as a typhoon passed off the coast of the Noto Peninsula in Northern Japan. For the next three days, Yonemura sent a stream of reports that alerted the world to the unfolding tragedy. Yonemura tapped out a 19-word bulletinCONFLAGRATION SUBSEQUENT TO SEVERE EARTHQUAKE AT YOKOHAMA AT NOON TODAY. The earthquakes epicenter was in the waters of Sagami Bay, triggering a tsunamithat reached heights of forty feet. [52], The Honda Point Disaster on the West Coast of the United States, in which seven US Navy destroyers ran aground and 23 people died, has been attributed to navigational errors caused by unusual currents set up by the earthquake in Japan.[53]. Twenty expatriate regulars at the Yokohama United Club, the citys most popular watering hole, died when the concrete building pancaked. [31] The damage is estimated to have exceeded US$1 billion (or about $16 billion today). 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