A CITY OF SHACKS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 7, 9 January 1925, Page 5

A CITY OF SHACKS

TOWN-PLANNING IN TOKIO

GRANDIOSE SCHEME ABANDONED

THREE YEARS' 'BAN,ON PERMANENT CONSTRUCTION. -' -.■;"■'.-T.V /•:■<". .

The. other day, the "Tokio Asahi

published a photograph' showing an extensive area in Fukagawa,' Tokio (one of the districts burnt out after the . earthquake), covered with stacks of timber, : which'.the paper' said was rotting- unused in the rain. It is to be feared that the. criticism is.. only too well founded; declares a correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian." After, the great fire, that swept away nearly - two-thirds of Tokio. there was a wonderful ;effcort to get things going again. With timber and corrugated iron a city of shacks was built with great lapidity, and an active civic life was -Tesumed. .OSince then, however, there has been a check.; In Tokio and in Yokohama alike orders were issued that, while buildings that -were more than .half finished and; had escaped the dis- ; aster might be completed, no permission for permanent buildings; was to be -granted, for three years.. In Tokio it was desired, to put into effect a" grandiose town-planning scheme,, with roads of. unnecessary width and unprecedented symmetry. Both 'the council, of the Reconstruction ■ Committee ancl the Diet turned down the' scheme, arid the Government now in office, while maintain- . jngHhe. three years' rule, has given up hopes, apparently, of town-planning. It must not be supposed that nothing is going on.; There were, all sorts of ruins to pull down, and this has mostly, .been done. There were a large number of buildings that could., be repaired, ;and this is going on, ; though more slowly.: Some pf: the large buildings that, are still in use. look so badly : shaken that • iurinises are - entertained of v special favours being granted by ■the' official engineers /whjbse duty it was ;to condemn .unsafe.structures.^ \' ;'"■' V- -.LIFE IN THE SHACKS. •■■ ' Costs, naturally, are enormous,' and •}vhile one must, admire the energy and indomitable", courage . shown in the rapid construction of a city of shacks, one ,is also struck-by the lack of anything . like ; communal work displayed. In various places the municipality built long rows 'of " barracks," in•-. wHich .the poor are still living, in a condition that' is squalid indeed,-;but: not "half so- squalid as; it would ■ become were a .European : population housed in such -cdnditjoris.- !Apart from'these' barracks, Tibwever, nothing. likV-.-any : long rows of temporary*buildings;is .to■ be;.seen. 'As Tokio was, .so. it is—a' vast aggregation of single buildings. Every single 7 shpp, especially .on :the more importaiit ■streets,-stands by its|lf, though; jt-may 'he touching the next one.. It is an.oiitJward and visible sign, of the,individual retention of '.ownership.."-'' the' "assertion .of which ivrecketj all town-planning schemes. . ' .' - . .• ;' .. : ■ Now, as regards life in these shacks, there are many signs" that- the Whole population has' .accepted and < accusitowed itself ;to a loWer standard ""of icomfort; but' there are alsc-! signs that •the desire to^live better has not beeir The barracks are generally kept fairly tidy,--and in great numbers of . them ■ the thick mat (tatami) •which :in -oblongs of siic feet by three : covers the floor o{ the Japanese' house now fitted, in. This is a great step, -for it is a strict rule that tatamis must be kept clean.. Indeed, the cleanliness ol the Japanese where there are tatamis andUieir dirtiness where there are none»form an unfailing and extraordinary contrast.- As regards the shops, they are we n stocked with a . great variety ot goods, jewellery ahopsbeinc by.no means lacking, and thera is I great display of attractive signboards— mostly of painted canvas. "..■]■". :.: :: " SOME SURVIVALS. '.. : . Repair Avofk varies greatly,..'accordtO.. T the naiur.e of the damage suffer.: ea. Where business can be carried on ■ somehow, all else awaits a lowering-of costs. I visited, for instance,-a large Jinn of makers and suppliers of dffic* requirements.in the oldest- ferro-concrete building _on Ginza; (sometimes called Tokio . Regent street).' This place Was burnt out, ;the only.thing belides concrete lett in it being certain windows of wired glass, which had withstood a heatthat caused stone to flake off! They were' cracked, of course,r but they still let in light.and keep oiit the weather. .Business was "as usual,? 1 but desks amf counters were made of empty boxes, and there had been no attempt at making the walls and ceiling decent. And this ?s the casejn all the houses that survived the fire, «p the great Mitsukpshi department more,, which also survived quake and. gutting, there has been hardly: any attempt at repair, though parts of; the building are boarded over, arid all sortsi of pretty things are on sale again. In the office of the Nippon Yusen itaisha Steamship Line, which .was not t't* the?e is a y wooden bridge over the big clerestory above the main office, which, is still ■• full of rubbish, the work being done upstairs. All the slabs of coloured marble .have fallen off pillars and walls, and the joints of the building gape. X m,ust have, been terrifying durjng the few seconds when all this 'damage was done. ..'.-. "';> Right opposite Tokio station :is "the great Marunouchi Building", an enormous bloclc of offices eight stories, high', with •rcades running through the base. 16 is the biggest .building of its kind in Japan,'and was always regarded as something that would be dangerous in an earthquake. It ■ cost eight million yen to' build, and an earlier quake did structural damage that it cost:twp niillioiis' to put right. In the greft quake .it stood much better than had been expected, though some of the hanging lights in the rooms left their marks -where, they swung up and broke against the ceiling. The place was a godsend when there was so much destruction, arid it .escaped the fire. . The facing of imitation brickwork: fell in enormous-.pat-ches, but that, of course^ though the most conspicuous, ;. is the least serious part of the damage: The internal strains that have to be atraigh£ened; out are costing another fry*- million yen-4so. altogether the building has doubled its original cost "as the result of earthquakes, and this is' a case where there was neither collapse-nor fire. -■■'■ LITTLE PERMANENT-BU^LDI^G. Quite apart from the question of prohibition, there would be a great reluctanco on th6part of many people to put up permanent structures eyen if ' they were at liberty to do so. Those who were burnt out but who were anxious to get to work again put up wooden one and two storey structures, which ar6 perfect^ jly-> serviceable,-and' which frequently j^ost more than the permanent buildings "Uiat they, replaced. On top of this great oxpenditure-7-not 5 per ;cent. of which was covered .by insurance—few are prepared to undertake permanent building, especially at a time when carpenters and ' masons; can g*et any wages th6y ask fdr. it wiy-ta iv^i >i-lit taiecuiiisfl at,

insurance companies and municipal reguktioni that Tokio will be rebuilt:

Outside Tokio and rokohama there •havß been a few large buildings constructed.' At Kawasaki, on the line between the two cities, the Imperial Sugar Company, for instance, have built a big place. ... ''■'■.': ■"..- Yokohama, which was \ still a desert long,.after Tokio was covered with shacks, is daily becoming more like Tokio. About .a third of the Foreign Settlement still consists of ruins, which ar& gradually being cleared away. The rest has wooden structures and one or two patched-up wrecks. The bund is extended about fifty yards seaward by the dumping of rubble. . The piers are partly repaired, but are still scenes of disorder, with sunken and twisted sections just as the earthquake left them. On the bluff there are a few foreign houses, and the Japaneso part of the town is like Tokio. The repair of -roads progresses very slowly. In Yokohama they are still bogs and morasses. In Tokio they are hardly better. But the Tokio roads were a, notorious scandal for many years. Money was voted, but was misappropriated. At last, however, a beginning is being made. Before the Imperial, Palace there is a road 150 feet wide and a couple of miles long, which is being . concreted by degrees. This thoroughfare is one of the examples, of overdoing town-planning, and it is rather fortunate that the first post-earthquake scheme, which was all on such lines, fell ;through, for there is a limit to the advantageous width of roads. But, pending good roadmaking, there is a terrible amount of wear and tear, ot vehicles, especially of the motor traffic. Work in the ravaged cities is going on steadily and vigourously, but it will be a long time before they are really rebuilt, arid there will not be any, great townplanning' schemes. - Moreover, all kinds of'activity are severely restrained by a Government which is pledged to the most rigid economy and protection, and would not even allow American ready-made houses to be imported except at 40 per cent. duty. '.-.,'•.'"■ .' ■'.