JAPANESE EARTHQUAKE

Evening Star, Issue 19697, 26 October 1927, Page 3

JAPANESE EARTHQUAKE

RECONSTRUCTION WORK AN OFFICIAL ACCOUNT By direction of the Imperial Japanese Government, the Bureau of Social Affairs Inis compiled a full.account in two volumes of the destruction wrought by the groat earthquake and the subsequent fires which destroyed most ot Tokio, the capital, and almost obliterated Yokohama on September 1 and 2, 1923. In this catastrophe, one ot the greatest that history has any record of, 156,000 persons were cither killed or seriously injured, and the damage in the affected zone, which included the prefectures of Tokio, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, Chiba, Saitama, Ynmanashi, and Ibnraki, amounted to the enormous sum of £500,000,000. Tbo first shock, ono of extreme violence, occurred a few seconds before noon on September 1; this was followed by many shocks, which succeeded one another at brief intervals, and winch culminated in a shock of greater intensity than any that had preceded it. The violence of the repeated shocks, extending over so many hours, and therefor© giving the people little or no opportunity to recover their self-pos-session, was one of the most dreadful features of the earthquake. All this is described at length in the two official volumes. Not even carefully restrained official language can altogether hide tho horrors of those twenty-four hours. STERN DEVOTION TO DUTY.

No finer tribute to Japanese character could bo found than in tlio stern devotion to duty which was shown by the army and tho navy, the police, the fire brigades, and by all official bodies in tho hour of trial. With the first convulsion Tokio and Yokohama were almost immediately cut off from the rest of tho world, for roads and railways were destroyed, and telegraph and telephone wires were brought down. A few minutes after the shock an army-carrier pigeon corps was organised,' and “a number of the gallant feathered messengers wore. put on despatch service between Tokio and such principal centres as had escaped. Nearly 400 pigeons were employed, and tlio messages they carried from September 1 to 7 numbered 500.” On the second day Army Aviation Headquarters organised an air service between Tokio and Osaka on an emergency mission associated with the disaster. Ihe flights had to be carried out, regardless ot weather conditions and with no preparation; and yet, though risks were taken with calculated recklessness, there were no accidents over, a distance of 27,000 miles. In the interests of peace and order martial law was early prescribed. Local governors and the police authorities wore ordered lo seize arms, ammunition, and other clangorous materials. Troops, coin prising a large military engineering force, •were rushed to the afflicted districts. In the cities the engineering units at once installed temporary electric services to light the main thoroughfares and other places where the refugees were assembled.

On the clay following the earthquake the Government appointed a Seismic Relict Board to organise services for the distribution of foodstuffs, building materials, and medical aid. The headquarters were in Tokio, with branches in Yokohama, and other largo centres. Yokohama had fared worse than tho capital. There were in Yokohama, fewer of the modern steel frame buildings which are capable of withstanding a severe shock without collapsing, and the proportion of highly inflammable and flimsy wooden buildings was greater. Therefore the task of providing relief was .greater than in Tokio, where many buildings could bo quickly converted into refuges and hospitals. In Yokohama evoything had to bo commenced afresh. The water supply was a difficult problem to solve, lor the waterworks had been wholly destroyed. However, from eighty wells within the city boundary good drinking water could be drawn, and from a number of others there was water which was potable after it had been boiled. Communication presented great difficulties, also, for, though all motor cars had, with other necessaries, been requisitioned, petrol supplies soon failed, so that a deadlock was threatened. The navy promptly placed great supplies of petrol at the sendee of tbo civil authorities. .In all groat disasters, with tho tension they produce on tho public mind, groundless rumors arise which may have serious consequences. In Tokio, Yokohama, and elsewhere the simultaneous outbreak of hundreds, and indeed thousands, of fires was attributed to the agency . of Chinese, Koreans, and other foreigners. There was no necessity to explain tho outbreak in. this way, for the known facts were sufficient fully to account for them. Tho two principal shocks had occurred on September 1 and 2, at the hour of the midday meal, and witli the collapse of perhaps nearly every wooden building over wide areas it was inevitable that fires should break out. The collected into groups, were placed under the protection of armed guards. SPEEDY RECONSTRUCTION.

Tho work of reconstruction and relief was carried out with astonishing speed, all things considered. Owing to the efficiency of the emergency services provision was quickly made ior housin'* the homeless, the starving were led and clothed, the sick and injured were cared for in temporary hospitals, tho dead wore buried, communication by rail, telegraph, telephone, and rac lio was restored, and sanitation am 1 water supply were established. lo carry on the work even in a temporary way cost £6,000,000.000, and of tins sum the nations, which at once came to the aid of Japan, outnbuted £2,000,614,000. Grateful acknowledgment of this generosity is made n the official report. “We, avail ourselves of this occasion/* ik is sau1 3 to <icdare that the Japanese Government and people offer their wholehearted gratitude to all foreign nations alike.