CASUALTIES AT YOKOHAMA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 11 September 1923, Page 5

CASUALTIES AT YOKOHAMA

REPORTED AS 80 PER CENT OF POPULATION SHANGHAI, Sept. 10 In interviews, refugees from OsaKn state no description could do justice to the awful experiences in Yokohama where the casualties allegedly number 80 per cent of the population. Hardly a wall is left standing. The place is literally choked with dead and debris. An American said, that after the flist shock, the place was levelled flat and when the fire started it was hell let loose. “Wo rushed to the sea to escape burning and remained for hours there up to our necks in the water. God knows what thousands of the poor devils suffered who were maimed or pinned under the tumbled buildings.” Amongst the remarkable escapes was that of a foreign woman having a bath in a second storey of a house which all collapsed except the bathroom, enabling her to get out of the window unclothed. A passing Japanese gave her a kimono. The refugees agree that 30 seconds after the first shock Yokohama was levelled flat. ITALIAN SYMPATHY ROME, Sept. 10. . The Government ordered official mourning for Japan to-morrow. Al 7 amusements are being closed and flags will be flown at half mast.