Land Of Disasters

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30286, 12 November 1963, Page 13

Land Of Disasters

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

TOKYO, November 11. Ever since anyone can remember, Japan has been a land of disasters —earthquakes, typhoons, floods, fires and atomic bombs, the Associated Press said. After each disaster, the Japanese have buried their dead, rebuilt their homes and returned to work with their customary industry. And so it was after the latest disasters. Within a day of the wreck at Yokohama, the trains were running again over the repaired tracks. Undoubtedly, most of the survivors of the mine explosion, 600 miles to the south, w’ill return to the underground caverns where more than 400 of their fellow workers died. Disasters have taken their toll in other countries, too. But what makes them so big and uncontrollable in Japan

is the number of people—now 95 million—in the small island nation. Overcrowding is a fact of life to the Japanese—trains packed to suffocation, cinema patrons sitting and standing in aisles, ferry-boats carrying double their passenger capacity, flimsy dwellings packed in crowded urban areas. The thirst for speed and, indeed, the very efficiency of the Japanese National RailW’ays have made them especially accident-prone. With an annual passenger load of 6000 million persons, the railroads are a marvel of split-second timing and on-time operations. Some fast trains are separated only by minutes. But at least 10,000 persons are killed annually in rail accidents of one kind or another, many at unattended crossings. The biggest natural calamity to strike Japan w r as the 1923 earthquake. The toll in] Tokyo alone w’as 143,000 dead, mostly by fire. The neigh- | bouring city of Yokohama j was reduced to ashes. Japan’s worst mine disaster | occurred in 1914 w’hen 687] persons were killed in ] Fukuoka, near the area of ( Saturday’s disaster. The; W’orld’s worst occurred in I Japanese-occupied Manchuria in 1942, when 1549 miners died. Nine years ago. an overcrowded ferry-boat capsized in a typhoon off the southern tip of Hokkaido with a loss of 1112 lives, including 56 Americans. The Japanese, w’ho have suffered through so many disasters, are the only people who have experienced the most deadly of man’s weapons. The atomic bomb’ dropped on Hiroshima onj August 6. 1945, killed at least; 78.000 persons. Three days ! later a second atomic bomb’ killed 74.000 in Nagasaki, less than 50 miles from Saturday’s mine explosion.

Author’s Wife Dies (N.Z.P.A -Reuter—Copyright) LONDON. Nov. 11. Lady Mackenzie, the wife of the author. Sir Compton Mackenzie, died yesterday, it was announced today. Lady Mackenzie before her marriage was Sir Compton Mackenzie’s secretary. They were married in January last year. i She was Sir Compton Mac- ] kenzie’s second wife. His 1 first wife. Faith, died in July, 1960. He is 80.