JAPANESE EARTHQUAKE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 November 1924, Page 3

JAPANESE EARTHQUAKE.

* FBTGHTEUL holocaust.

REAh RAUL- IvANuAMORT’S NARRATIVE.

Hie Rtev. Paul Kan-ainori the Tan i Dliace Congregational Church (Dunedin), recent]v on his personal. experiences in the great Japan The ■ church a *w-as a .most, crowded, and the address was nature aild hVfonnaiive

The disaster, he .said, occurred at one minute lo seconds to 19 at a tune when there would be a ’fire in hollsp 1 ’l 1 , Preparation of the noonday meal. Oonsequentlv fire broke !’t' n all directions, and to make matters worse the waterworks Were destroyed. More damage indeed was caused by the fire than by the disitself. Another frightful disaster occurred in >u, big open space in tokioto which a huge crowd rushed the hre sweeping right over it. As a . ,^ esn 1 P eo 'Ple died. In and atound Tokio itself 300,000 people died a quarter of the population of New Zealand —‘anti millions were injured whith would have meant, if the 'disasl ter had occurred in New Zealand, that every man, woman and child would have beep injured.' The value of the destroyed aniounted to £1.000,000,000, SO that the calamitv was one of the greatest that had overtaken hi* country. There had been several instances before of earthquakes. jbut this was the Worst. ’ Mr. Kana.mori left J apian -in March o.f thus .year, so he <lkl not know mud) about present concli.tion.si there, but' from letters be had received he judged that the country was recovering. Yokohama Was being re-erected von modem lines, and buildino-.s were springing up everywhere. ‘-At the time of the ■disaster Mr. Kanamori was 500 miles away from bis home in Tokio, travelling in a train, and he felt no shock. When he reached his destination 600 miles away, however, be heard a 'rumour that there had been a. strong earthquake in the northern parts, but ns shocks of this kind were not uncommon, he continued his evangelistic campaign. Later he heard more details, and learnt that the only means of cominimicatroii was by wireless from a. ship in the harbour at Yokohama. After vainly endeavouring to reach Tokio overland be eventually secured a passage in a ship, and arrived on September 6, finding everything all beyond his wildest expectations. The whole city, except for the residential quarters‘along the hillside, had Loon destroyed"? Everywhere there were burnt brides, ruins, and dead bodies. Re had had no communication from Lis four children, aiml proceeded to find his way home through, the ruins. As he approached lie slaw that the conditions seemed to be better, and when lie fluidly reached his house he found that, as far as outward appearances went, it was quite undamaged. Nor had his children been hurt, although during the 24 hours after the first ’quake there had been 357 other shocks. Another -very bad phase of the disaster was the number of thieves and robbers who took the opportunity to plunder all the houses they could. Am! yet his family had lost nothing through earthquake, fire, or thieves, a fact which he attributed to the power of G od, who had answered his prayer. As a further indication of the band of God in the saving of his children he said that Ire had given his eldest daughter a cheque to cash on the first day of tire month. It bad been her practice to go to the hank 'at Vi o’clock in the morning, and on this occasion she took her youngest sister with her wiMi tht' intention of shopping later in the day. Something came to her mind, however, as soon as -she had cashed the cheque, ami in spile of her lit lie si -tc r s protests she went straight back, arriving home Vj minutes before the great earthquake, which desolated that part of the city. For tire last ten years, the speaker concluded, he bad been conducting evangelistic campaigns away from his home, and ‘as bis -children had no mother, and lie was unable to carry out bis duties as a father to them, lie had one specific praver for them, beseeching that his children be pro- : •/■--ted fro. r fo-r gre»t- dangers u. { 'that land—ihieves fire earcbo'i-nk'es. and sickness. Surely his prayer lord been miraculouslv answered!