YEARS OF WORK

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11651, 16 October 1923, Page 6

YEARS OF WORK

MAKINC A NEW JAPAN YOKOHAMA A VAST PANORAMA OF DESOLATION. MARTIAL LAW IN’ FORCE. Bv Telegraph.—Pro«* A«pu.—Copyright (Spociai to Australian Press Association). TOKIO, October 13. Tho moro one sees of the stricken citv, the moro one realises the terrible extent of tho destruction. No warfare would reduce a city to ashes like this. From the heights of Uyeno Park, tho scone is one of awful desolation. Tens of thousands of temporary timber buildings, shops, and dwellings dot the* landscape. Here and there a building that was net destroyed stands out in striking contrast. The lebuilding will take years. Great emporiums are now carrying on business in small timber sheds; others are conducting their business in footpath shacks Hundreds of thousands of people are camped in timber barracks and tents in tne various parks. Tho Australian Press representative viewed the ruined city in company with Count Yoshii (who recently visited Australia), and was driven in a car through miles of streets formerly occupied by prosperous traders. Tho scene baffles description. In the Fukugawa ward, 40,000 people were trapped hy the flames, and all were burned to death. BUDDHIST TEMPLE ESCAPES. Hardly a stick is left standing; hanks, factories, schools, and mercantile houses all shared the same fate. Ten out of 11 theatres were destroyed, including the Imperial Theatre, which is owned largely by the Royal Family. The Emperor’s palace is set on a hill and protected hy stono walls and moats dating from the old days, and the Emperor looked down fiom the high mount on the burning city and tho crashing ruins. Tho remarkable escape of the famous Kwannon Temple, in Asakusa Park, while buildings all around were destroyed, appealed to superstitious beliefs. The road leading to the temple was always crowded with tourists and tho faithful, but never with greatercrowds than now. The escape of this Buddhist temple is regarded as miraculous, and people from the city and the country are flocking there, throwing coins to Buddha, and praying with bowed heads.

“FIRE, THE GREAT PURIFIER.” The feeling of the people is one of resignation, hut not of despair. They are resolved to turn the great calamity to good account. Fire, the great purifier, has wiped out all slums, and gives a chance to plan a city on modern lines. The old Japan is dead, the new Japan is in the making. Years must elapse before Tokio rises out of her ashes.

The searchlights of the Japanese warships sweeping the ruins of the devastated city, and the red glow of burning coal giving the impression of a vast funeral pyre, are the first impiessions of Yokohama at night. At sunrise the vast panorama of desolation is unfolded. The great city becomes a vast area of debris, with thousands of Japanese scratching the irins for the dead and for lost belongings.

Order has now been restored, but martial law is in force, and the curfew operates at 6 o’clock. All day the surviving population works among the ruins. From the ashes are arising little shacks of dilapidated galvanised non, while dotted here and there are temporary offices made of new timber. Only a few husks of the palatial offices remain. Owing to the inextricable confusion of fallen masonry, many of the buildings have still not been examined, including the Oriental Hotel. PLIGHT OF FOREIGNERS. Most of the foreigners who resided in the Bluff area have gone to Kobe or to their own countries. The Japanese have gone to the country. Diners are living in the ruins and some in. barracks. All work, in order to procure relief stores, is being done at nominal rates. 1 About 300 foreigners are left out of GCOO. They are mostly clothed in shorts and oddments. Some are living aboard ship, including the British Consul. Their position is serious, and some of tho Australmount’s stores are bong devoted to their benefit. The Salvation Army is doing good work among the foreign refugees. Otherwise, apart from private efforts, all the work is under the control of the authorities. STUNNED AND LISTLESS. From appearances, the Tokio authorities are making a better attempt to grapple with the appalling situation than those in Yokohama, where the people are stunned and listless, as if they half expect a further visitation. No shocks or any violence have been felt since Thursday, October 4th. The great Marunouchi district, containing some magnificent buildings, remains practically intact, thanks to the modern methods by which they were built, under the supervision of American architects. Tho earthquake and fire-resisting railway station, also a splendid building, and an adjoining hotel, escaped without great damage. In the same quarter of the city, nevertheless, even ferro-conoreto proved ineffectual in some cases. Tho magnificent Imperial Theatre suffered moro through firo than through tho earthquake. The outer walls only nro standing, and they must como down.

BUILDINGS TILTED. There is great danger from falling walls everywhere, hut some people are still living in the top stories of high buildings with immense cracks through them, and in some cases tilted to one side. Th« Imperial Hotel, one of the finest in tho world, occupying an area 500 feet by 200 feet, and containing a theatre, soating'looo poisons, and numerous shops and offices, in addition to the ordinary accommodation, was built by an American architect, and i.s hardly damaged. It is now filled with foreigners, mostly Embassy officials and newspaper correspondents. For n day or two after the earthquake looting and violence wore general, and formed one of the ugly features of tho disaster. Many of the looters wero snot on sight, and tho opportunity was also taken to kill Koreans, between whom and tho, Ja* paneso thero i.s much bitterness.

The premises of the foreign settle merit in Yokohama were held under perpetual leases. The Japanese were always anxious to regain possession of them, and whenever they were offend for sale bought at any price. Owing to tho complete demolition of the foreign settlement, the opportunity may he taken to abolish those leases. TRADE RIVALRY, j Yokohama, prior to the earthquake, | was tho centre of tho silk trade, I which since then has largely boon | transferred to Kobe. Strenuous efforts

in Yokohama. A movement is also afoot to make Tokio the principal port instead of Yokohama.

A serious problem facing the Japanese in tho devastated regions is the rebuilding edict, which provides that no permanent building shall bo erected for three years, with a. view to a general reorganisation and lay-out in tho rebuilding of the city.

BANK VAULTS A DEATH-TRAP. Almost every office building in Yokohama was razed to the ground, and the only institution of note conducting business in its own premises is the Yokohama Specie Bank. The shell of tho building remains, and banking is carried on in the vaults by tho light of candles and lanterns. The bank was the scene of one of the worst sights of the disaster. After the first shock, hundreds sought refuge in the building. A fire followed, and the refugees were trapped. Bodies were piled feet high in the vaults and other parts of the premises.

Elsewhere in Yokohama little businesses are starting again in primitive shanties by the roadside merchant*. Only a flagpole and flag, together with a few rude graves of members of the Consular staff, mark the site of tho British Consulate. The Acting-Consul-General, Mr Macrae, is working his own typewriter aboard a steamer in Yokohama Bay.