JAPAN'S DEATH ROLL.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 220, 14 September 1923, Page 5

JAPAN'S DEATH ROLL.

TOKYO'S TERRIBLE LOSSES. HORROR AND HEROISM. SURVIVORS' STORIES. (By Cable.—Tress Association.—Copyright.! (Received 10.30 a.m.) OSAKA, September 13. According to the latest report, 84,000 dead bedies have been recovered in Tokyo. £ome of Hie most densely occupied sections of Tokyo arc still unexplored. Survivors tell stories of people trapped in crumbling buildings singing the folksongs of Japan, while tiiey unflinchingly awaited certain death. The casualties at the cinemas were especially heavy.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.) JJI AUSTRALIAN STORY. THE TIDAL "WAVE. MERRYMAKERS .DROWNED. (Received 11.30 a.m.) OSAKA, September 13. Mr. Cox, of Adelaide, one of the refugees, tells a sensational story. When the earthquake started he jumped out of the open window of the house. Two others in the building were killed, one of whom was Juel Madset, a Danish artist on the staff of the London "Graphic." ■When the earthquake started the sea receded, the bed being bare for half a mile. Then the sea returned as a roaring wave 25ft high. A ciifi' 500 ft high toppled on to the heads of the people. He saw fishing boats, houses, and hundreds of people who were merrymaking p few minutes before swept out to sea.—■ ("Sun.") THE CASUALTY LIST. AN OFFICIAL COMPILATION. DEAD, INJURED, AND MISSING, 1,356,000. NEW YORK, September 13. Advices from Osaka state that what Is reported to be an official compilation cf the earthquake casualties estimates the dead, injured and missing at 1,356,000. The number of houses destroyed was 316,000. The Government has decided to appropriate JSO,----000,000 dollars (£30,000,000) for relief and reconstruction, but it still opposes the flotation of a foreign loan for that purpose. Deaths from the disaster in Tokyo and environs are estimated at 150,000. Reactional earthquakes continue, but Jiave fallen to only 20 a day. Groups of 100 and more bodies have been found in various spots. Dyseutry is prevalent. \ American marines have been landed ' at Tokyo and are erecting a bakery and i motor-repair shop at tlie American Embassy to promote relief and transporta- , tion. The plight of survivors in Tokyo , is pitiable. " Heavy rain is adding to j Che general misery. Thousands of homeless and destitute Japanese are etill thronging the public parks. They are living on the flesh and bones of such animals as they find by raking the ruins of the Zoological Gardens, aud on lish taken from ponds in the parks. Tlie "L'nited Press of America" states that authentic reports from Yokohama reveal that 2000 foreigners saved themselves following the collapse of houses on the Bluff by jumping into the sea. They stood neck deep in the water, dipping their heads beneath the surface occasionally to counteract the terrific leat. The Polish Minister to Japan was flung by the earthquake into the Yokohama Canal, along both sides of which roaring fires blazed. With llamcs raging around him, he remained in the water 18 Jiours, eventually escaping alive.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.) ° VAST FUNERAL PYRES. THE SEARCH FOR FRIENDS. OSAKA, September 13. Thousands of people continue to roam the streets of Yokohama trying to pick out the bodies of relatives from tlie seemingly countless corpses. Some bodies are burned beyond recognition, and all are now reaching an advanced stage of decomposition. They lire piled like cordwood, awaiting cremation, on xast funeral pyres. Comparatively few are being identified, yet the efforts of survivors are never eliding i"sun.") RE-BUILDING TOKYO. AN APPEAL TO THE NATION. (Received 2.30 p.m.) - 'OSAKA, September 13. An Imperial rescript issued appeals to the nation for a supreme effort to restore the stability of national sentiment, and emphasises the necessity of not only restoring, but further developing Tokyo as the recognised political and economic centre of Japan. The rescript says that Tokyo remained the national capital, although the outward structure had been destroyed. .Special arrangements were being made for its revival.— (Reuter.)