Japanese Calamity

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIII, Issue 229, 12 September 1923, Page 5

Japanese Calamity

The Toll of Life Destruction in Tokio LITTLE PROFITEERING IN EVIDENCE, NEW COMMERCIAL CENTRES. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.] (Received 12, 9.15 a.m.) Osaka, Sept. 10. The bodies picked up in Yokohama to noon of 7th total 23.G00 and in Tokio to 9th, 65,000. Mr. Daniel Langford, the world's leading collector of marine shells, and a professor in Ke io University, is among the dead in Yokohama. Thirteen of sixteen telephone exchanges in Tokio were destroyed. There is little tendency towards profiteering since the Government issued a stern notice. The price of most commodities remains unchanged. The latest police report states that buildings destroyed in Tokio total 410,0()0, and the people affected 1,547,000. hundred and ninety-three thousand persons are taking refuge in schools, temples and parks, and 292,000 in other people’s houses. It is estimated that it will take 30 years to reconstruct Tokio, and as a consequence, many Japanese and the majority of foreign firms are planning to move to Osaka and Kobe. The same applied to. Yokohama.—(Sydney “Sun” cable). THE NEW TOKIO. PLANS UNDER CONSIDERATION. THE MORATORIUM. (Received 12. 8.55 a.m.) Osaka, Sept. 10. The Minister for Home Affairs, Baron Goto, and the Mayor of Tokio are making a special study of plans for the reconstruction of the capital, and it is understood experts from the Home Department have already decided on the general line of procedure, which will shortly lie announced. One question which is being anxiously discussed in business circles is the effect of the moratorium upon the money marked which at present is very tight here. Some authorities advocate an extension of the moratorium outside the earthquake zone, but Osaka bankers think this will be unnecessary. Business in foreign exchange is practically at a standstill, but in view of the necessity of importing foodstuffs, building materials, etc., there is a great d'emand for sterling and dollars. —(A. and N.Z.) REBUILDING OF TOKIO. PLANNED ON AMERICAN LINES. FOOD SITUATION IMPROVING. Received (12, 8.55 a.m.) New York, Sept. 11. A radio message from Tokio states that the Government has tentatively adopted a plan to rebuild Tokio. It will resemble somewhat the United States capital. Meanwhile, corpses are still lying about the streets. Japanese industrialists have ordered modern technical manufacturing equipment from America, thus assuring the rise of an entirely modern Tokio from the ashes of the disaster.

Foreign refugees are being sent to Kobe, and some are going directly home.

The food situation is much improved, with the steady arrival of relief ships. —(A. and N.Z.)

AMERICA’S PRACTICAL SYMPATHY.

A GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT (Received 12, $.40 a.m.) Washington, Sept. 11 The Japanese Ambassador. Mr. Hamhara conveyed Count Yamamoto’s acknowledgment of the United States’s as sistance which was as follows: “The precious gift of American sympathy cannot but serve the peace, of the world, drawing the two countries still closer in friendship and trust.”—(A. and N.Z.) LAST NIGHT’S NEWS. A TOKIO~HOLOCAUST. SCENE OF 30.000 DEATHS. SURVIVORS’ APPALLING STORIES. Osaka, Sept. 10. It is row established that the major portion of the Tokio fatalities occurred in one place, namely, the military clothing depot at Honjowaro, where over 30,000 perished. Tne # actual circumstances leading to the terrible tragedy are now described by a young man, Kawashima, who miraculously escaped with his life and reached Osaka to-day. He said he rushed to take refuge in a great open space at the military clothes depot, oven ten acres enclosed by brick walls.' Reaching there he ijound tens of thousands of people already gathered.

Late in the afternoon a terrible east wind brought with it burning flames, so hot, even in this wide rendezvous, that the hair on the faces was actually burned. Naturally there was a rush westward in the enclosed space, causing a tremendous stampede, in which thousands died tramplea by the flow of men. This cyclone actually blew Kawashima to a point where there was a pool of water breast deep. He plunged in, covering his head with a wadded cushion.

So tremendous was the volume of converging flame and showers of great pieces of burning wood and iron that many of people were roasted alive. Kawashima did not know what happened till next morning, when he was rescued by troops together with 20 or 30 others. The whole compound was covered with nothing but half-burned corpses. Al lone survivor, singed and nearly crazed, told a story of. perhaps, the worst single tragedy in the Tokio earthquake. The narrator revealed how when the fires started amid the wreckage he, with 32,000 others, rushed into a 15acre clearing flanked by a stockade of buildings on all sides situated near the Hygoogeku station in Tokio’s Honios district. Gradually house after house took fire, and the flames licked into the huddled mass of humanity, causing many to be trampled to death. The wind then increased in velocity, setting fire to more buildings while the crowd awaited in a panic the onrush of the destructive flames. Meanwhile the stencil of burning bodies in their midst became almost unbearable, crazing many, who rushed into the whirlwind of names. The narrator alone escaped hy rolling himself in a water-soaked quilt, whi(?h accidently opened when soldiers later arrived. —(A. and N.Z.) OFFICIAL BUILDINGS AT TOKIO. NEARLY ALL STANDING. Osaka, Sept. 10. Reports from Tokio state that with the exception of the Home Office and the Finance Department nearTy r ~all official buildings escaped the flames. The following are still standing, though bn<Hv shaken and in some cases uninhabitable: The. Foreign Office, General Staff Office, Navy Department, the Diet

building and the Russian, Italian, Belgian and German embassies. The American, French and CJiinese were the only embassies burned. The British Embassy building is uninhabitable, but the only ho.use actually burned at the Embassy was the Japanese counsellor’s. The central station is still standing, and also all the big buildings flanking it on both sides, the commercial quarter generally known as the Marunouclii.—(A. and N.Z.) RECONSTRUCTION PROPOSALS. Osaka, Sept. 10,. The American destroyer Whipple, the only foreign warship ever t< enter, the innermost harbour at Tokio, took aboard the steamer Empress of Australia all foreigners from the imperial Hotel, which has taken over for military purposes. The Empress of Australia conveyed them to Kobe. Very few foreigners are left in Tokio. A movement is afoot to incorporate Yokohama when it is rebuilt into greater Tokio. Another movement mooted is to create the port of Shimizu, now the principle tea export centre. Many favour this in preference to rebuilding Yokohama, where the question of foreign perpetual leases has been a long-standing source of irritation to the Japanese. (Sydney “Sun” cable). URGENT NEED OF FUNDS, FOOD AND MEDK'AL SUPPLIES. ANOTHER SHOCK ON MONDAY. INSANITY AMONG REFUGEES. Washington, Sept. 10. Reporting an epidemic of lever in Tokio, Ambassador Woods cabled the Government that it is imperative that 1,000,000 dollars of Red Cross funds be placed immediately at the disposal of the relief committee in Japan for the quick purchase of medical supplies and food in nearby markets. A message from Tokio by radio stated that a renewed earthquake shook Japan yesterday. Tlie tremor added to the people’s terror, but only slightly increased the havoc already wrought. Relief workers are exerting every effort to combat disease. Nevertheless, the danger of epidemics of typhoid and dysentery is becoming grave. Many refugees are going mad as a result of their experiences. Twelve foreigners who escaped from Yokohama are already hopelessly insane from having had to stand helplessly by and observe the tortures of five children burning to death. Reconstruction will take years and is comparable to the task.of rebuilding the devastated areas France. Tokio’s business centre, seven miles long and two miles wide, is now mainly ashes. Reports show that a 200 mile radius around Yokohama was swept by landslides along the coast, all hotels on the cliffs toppling into the sea as though pushed hy a giant hand.—(A. and N.Z.)