HOW TOKIO FELL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17181, 26 October 1923, Page 10

HOW TOKIO FELL.

MR ERIC BELL WRITES HOME. A {graphic description of the dostrnction of the city of Tokio is given in a letter received yesterday by Mr Horace Thompson from Mr Eric Bell, a former resident of Christchurch. The letter is dated Tokio, September 17. Mr Bell says—‘‘l thought that you would be pleased to hear from me, at any rate to hear that I have come out of this terrible disaster without loss of any kind. . . . 1 was sitting at my desk at a minute to twelve when the big earthquake came. Our suite of offices is on the sixth floor, and when we felt the first sway we all stood up and tried to get to the door. But ic was impossible. In a minute every window- crashed in. and stone began to fall in every direction, and every desk, hook case, safe, and, in fact, all the furniture, came tumbling into the ■ room and crashing to pieces about us. Wo had to sit on the floor clutching at each other, and there we swung like a tree in a gale. Every minute we expected to be our last, and we could see the other wing of our building through the window's rising and falling like a ship. The noise was dreadful, and it lasted about four minutes. It seemed like two hours. Many of our staff were hurt and pinned down under heavy things, and one girl, a Japanese typist, was very badly hurt. RUSH FOR THE STREET. “When the shock started to subside we were all ordered out of the room. We found the lifts all jammed and wreckage everywhere, and the building was still swaying like a ship as W'e madly rushed down the six flights of stairs, amidst falling glass, piaster and stone. How w-e got to the street we hardly know, but we all got there somehow, and there we were just in time to meet another terrific shock. The second one was worse than the first, and we had to hang on to the trees at the side of the Imperial Moat to keep ourselves from falling. > TERROR-STRICKEN CROWDS. “ We saw our building rise and fall and crack up in all directions, and opposite we saw' the wonderful new Nippon Yusen Shipping Compyiny’s offices. the same height as ours, all open up and swaying as if it were going to tumble down. The streets were thronged with thousands of terror-stricken people, and women were fainting and cut about. Men were running about with their heads and bodies cut and blood streaming from their woipids. But the second shock soon was ever, and then we had time to think. There was l standing without a coat and hat, with my trousers toi*n to shreds and soaking wet, for a hot water radiator had fallen on me and torn and soaked my clothes to the skin. But I had all my limbs, and hadn’t a scratch. HUGE FIRES EVERYWHERE. “It was awful getting home, for walls had tumbled down everywhere, most of the big buildings were in ruins, and huge fires had ah'eady started everywhere. We saw thirty or more big columns of smoke rising from all parts of the city. We passed the beautiful Imperial Theatre, which was all in flames, and the Metropolitan Police Department, too, burning like a furnace. Every tram had stopped, as most of the wires were down, and the streets were lined with thousands of people going in a panic-stricken way in every direction. THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTYFIVE SHOCKS IN ONE DAY. “ There was not a shop or house for miles left whole. Most of them were down, and blocks were already starting to burn. Families were working to get all they could into the middle of the tramlines, and the whole population seemed to be camped there, all waiting for the next shock. The first day we had 355 shocks, and all were as alarming as any we ever have had in New Zealand. “ By six that night all was in darkness, as there was no moon. The 6ky was a mass of black smoke, and u horrid glare filled the sky. We walked to Kudan Hill, the highest hill in Tokio, and there we saw pretty well the whole business part of the city in flames. One part alone, the size of Auckland, was reduced then to ashes and burning cinders. Refugees were coming in thousands with carts, and we saw youths carrying old women and men on their hacks, and women piteously tramping along with their families of tiny children, not knowing where they were going, and many whose husbands had been burnt and killed. A MOST TERRIBLE SIGHT. “It was a most terrible sight, and too awful and too terrible to describe fully to you. Since then I have seen piles of bodies in heaps as big as house’s all roasted and ready to be cremated. I saw one lot of 30,000 bodies all laid in rows ready to lie destroyed to prevent disease. At San Francisco it was a flea-bite compared with this. At that time San Francisco v. as no higger than Sydney, while Tokio has nearly seven millions and has an area as big as London. In less than two weeks the population here has diminished by over a million, so that will tell you how awful it lias been. AA'e had a terrible time for three days, with only black rice to live on, and fires raging in every direction. LIVED IN THE STREET. “ AVe lived most of that time in the street, sleeping when we could on chairs and mats that we had carried there, for the houses were too unsafe. A\ T e had bags packed with a few valuables and clothes, for we were warned that the fire was coming to us. Already the whole city had burnt for miles, and it was creeping gradually towards us, the only district left untouched by fire. But suddenly the wind changed, and we felt that wi might be saved. In the end cmv fire subsided, and ours was the only district left. The whole of this wonderful city had been completely destroyed. You can have no idea of it from letters. for it was a nightmare, and the worst tragedy that the world has seen for two or three centuries. TRIBUTE TO JAPANESE. “The greatest part of the whole thing is the order and wonderful discipline of the Japanese people. There have been no complaints, no tears and no panic of any sort. There has been martial law proclaimed here, but the soldiers are doing such wonders, rebuilding all the bridges, the railways, the roads, putting up shelters for the homeless and bringing food to the houses. They are like a lot of gentle, happy children. They are so quiet and so typically Japanese, that is, I mean, so kind arid so good to everyone and as gentle as little children. l have not seen one drunken man in any shape or form. Every shop is full of beer, whisky and wine, and yet not a easo of drunkenness. All foreigners have been warned to leave in case of disease and another shock, and they have been pouring out of the country fast. There is hardly one left. Of course, Tokio will Ire a dead city for years to come, and there will be nothing to do, see or anything else here, for there is no-i-bing.- ’