THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1923. THE JAPANESE DISASTER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18496, 5 September 1923, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1923. THE JAPANESE DISASTER

The disaster which has overtaken a large portion of Japan is one of those visitations which leave humanity with an abiding sense of helplessness. For all the advances of science, for all the centuries of patient investigation into the workings of natural law, untamed nature suddenly reveals itself in unbridled violence, and human strength, knowledge and prescience shrink impotent before the - outbreak. This is especially true of earthquakes. The coming of storms and floods is heralded by signs which man has learned to read in part. Volcanic eruptions have sometimes seemed to occur without an instant's warning, but as the science of vulcan-. ology advances, it becomes evident that the signs are generally there to be read by those holding the clue. With earthquakes this is not yet soThey occur, and all that remains is to rescue those in peril, to succour the injured, and to repair the damage done. It is recognised that certain areas of the earth's surface are more liable to these visitations than the remainder; yet neither definite periodicity nor preliminary symptoms make it'possible for the inhabitants to anticipate trouble and take precautions. When the blow falls it descends upon a community all unprepared, and the lack of any warning invests the consequences with an added degree of J horror. This is absolutely so in j the case of the Japanese catastrophe. The science ,of seismology has been brought to as high a standard among the Japanese as anywhere in the world. They were the modern pioneers of it, and in some respects lead the world. Yet the disaster ovewhelmed them as surely as if they had given never a thought to the causes and nature of earthquakes. Just as the individual experiencing a shock falls prey to a feeling of utter helplessness, so humanity, in face of a disaster like the present Japanese earthquake, realises its impotence.

It is not remarkable that earthquakes were long regarded as being of supernatural origin. If the appearance of comets, which only by an association of ideas could be connected with human misfortunes, awakened superstitious dread, it is only natural that similar fears should be aroused by earth tremors which wrought definite, visible, material harm. As greater knowledge was gained of the earth's form and constitution, it was realised that the occasional trembling and heaving of its surface was traceable to probable causes. The exact nafore of the forces at . work cannot yet be considered definitely determined scientists cannot gay why:

or when slow and gentle changes in Kurfaoe levels or internal pressure will become sudden and violent. Yet it is now accepted that, the processes which produce earthquakes are in no way morbid. The law of change operates ceaselessly on the [surface of the globe, and the shocks

and tremors which terrify humanity are normal if unusual manifestations of it. Civilised man himself prepares most of the material with which earthquakes destroy life. The buildings he himself has reared fall and crush him; fire among the debris adds to the work of destruction ; while the accompanying tidal waves are disastrous principally because men crowd together in closelypacked communities on the margin of the sea. If there were no great cities, especially none on the seashore, earthquakes would not have slain more than many wars, as they have in the last century. The great disaster which has overwhelmed Tokio and Yokohama is eloquent of this. So was that which, in 1906, laid San Francisco in ruins. To bring the parallel nearer home, if to a smaller scale, the earthquake which shook Wellington in 1848 was much less destructive than that of 1855. by which time the town had grown much in size.

The occurrence of a great disaster is generally regarded as an isolated phenomenon. In magnitude it is, but not in kind. The systematic study of earth movements dates back only to the middle of the nineteenth century. In the comparatively few years intervening it has been found that some disturbance of the earth's surface somewhere on the globe, is of more than daily, is indeed almost of hourly, occurrence. Instruments of increasing sensitiveness record tremors which are too slight for detection by human senses. Earthquakes which affect the sea-bottom but are not noticeable, in the ordinary way, on land, are recorded. Their approximate] distance from any given point, and J their intensity can be calculated. A j shock such as that which has shaken Japan is detected at many widely separated stations. By comparison of times and degrees of force, the origin, nature and direction of the thrust will be discovered. So far s as the science has developed, it has not achieved much to help avoidance of the dire consequences of a severe series of shocks. It is still merely in its infancy, however. Many centuries elapsed between the foundation of systematic astronomical observation and the first successful calculation of comet periodioitv. So great an achievement in one branch of science is not impossible to another. The Japanese upheaval appears one of the blackest earthquake disasters of history. Investigation of its course may help on the work of research ; apart from that there is nothing in it but grief and loss for one nation, horror and sympathy for the rest, varied only by the promptest humanitarian efforts to help the sufferers. .