TERRIBLE DAYS IN TOKIO.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17182, 27 October 1923, Page 8

TERRIBLE DAYS IN TOKIO.

MR E. S. BELL’S STORY. UNPARALLELED SCENES. By Kjuo S. Bely. (Special to “ Star.”) TOKA O, September 5. September 3 in Tokyo was one of the most perfect days that one could wish for in. this beautiful la.nd. The heat-of the summer is lessening, and a glorious morning of sunshine and serene calm greeted the new day. People thronged to the city ns usual in their trams and trains, all. eager for their day’s wprk, and the din of the city, the roar of the great construction of new buildings that are going up went on as usual, and no one dreamed of inity that at midday was going to wreck this most wonderful, ancient and modern city, the*fourth largest in the world at tiro present day. For a few weeks past I had been working at one of the biggest companies in Japan, the Asano Bussan Company, engaged as English secretary there, and that morning J sat down to my work with unusual zest., owing to tire cooler weather and the freshness of everything. THE FIRST SHAKE. At exactly five minutes to twelve, midday, the first earth tremor started. Our offices are situated in the Kayic Building, the third largest in Tokyo, and our suite of rooms is on. the sixth floor. It. is built of reiuforced concrete, moulded on to steel girders anc a strong framework, after the style oi all modern American buildings, and 1 am happy to say that it stood throughout the shake. At the first sign of the quake, everyone stood up, and rushed for the door but we only managed t-o get a few yards, for the swaying threw us com pletely off .our feet, and our way wa: immediately barred by the falling o: the desks and book cases and office fur niture. There are about fifty clerks j typists and others employed there, am J many were slightly hurt, although ' am glad to say that we all got out with ! out serious injury. We saw that mov i ing was of no use, as we would hav< all been killed, so wo sit on the floo hanging on to the posts, while tin ceiling, furniture and other things carm j hurling down upon us. The building | swayed like a huge tree in a gale, a/n< j the noise of falling glass, stone am ■ the creaking of the girders as the: swung was terrific. It was like tin roar of thunder, intermingled with ; sound like someone churning up broken crockery in a huge churn. Our Japanese girl typists lay in every direction, screaming and crying, and shrieks and calls for help were heard from everywhere above toe din. "We could see the rise and fall of the other wing of our building through the window, and of course wo all just waited for the end. The first shake was an up--and-down movement, and it is stated that the earth moved below a distance cf six inches. A RUSH FOR THE OPEN. It lasted for about two and a half minutes, then suddenly stopped, then immediately it came again more furiously than ever. To describe it properly would be impossible, for we were all so dazed that wo hardly knew what was happening, and all were expecting to be hurled into the street below any moment. When the second one came, there was a wail of distress from everyone, and we all clutched at each other and hung on for dear life, stretching ourselves on the floor. This one lasted another two minutes, then it became loss severe, and orders were given for everyone to try and get to the stairs*. To do this wo had to climb over huge heaps of broken furniture and debris, six and seven feet high, and without coats and hats we made a mad rush for the door. The stone stairway was the only possiblq exit, for all lifts had jammed, and the only way was those six flights of sVaying stairs, with plaster and stone'falling in every direction. Hundreds were fumbling their way down, for we could not go quickly, owing to the terrible movement. Men carried women and girls screamed, some bleeding from slight wounds, some leapt madly past us, and eventually we got to the ground floor and saw the street door ahead of us. IVo rushed into the open just as the shock had ceased. BUILDINGS TOPPLE IN RUINS. Opposite the office was the Great Imperial Moat, that surrounds the Emperor’s Palace, and the old Avail centuries old lay broken in th© moat in many places, and big stones the size of a room still came tumbling down, th o isands were on the streets, and we saAV many terrible sights, such as wounded people being carried into the street from the sAvaying and cracked buildings. On the corner of the next block we saw a lingo mass of masonry, an almost completed building, that had been put up minus steel frame, topple in a heap, crushing SOO Avorkmcn as it foil. There was nothing but a 40ft Avail left standing with a. heap of stones as high piled in the middle. Beyond we saw th© beautiful Imperial Theatre, th© most up-to-date and most lovely theatre in Japan, issuing forth huge clouds of dense smoke. And then a third shake came. and everyone screamed and rushed to the trees to hold on. Again w© saw these huge masses of buildings swaying as if they were pieces of paper. This shock luckily was not a long one, and it also was th© lost s©A r ere tremor. Trams had stopped and were standing absolutely vacated in the centre of the street, and people were tearing about wild-eyed and anxious, looking for their friends. The big offices of the Nippon Yusen. Kaisha (avlios© agents are Kay© and Carter, of Christchurch) were all cracked up and dangerously swinging still as we passed, and every big modern building seemed damaged severely. and = empty, for everyone that could get out had fled. THE HOMELESS. IVe were alarmed about our house, for it stands on th© edge of a high stone embankment in a suburb called Yotsuya, and although comparatively neAA r , it is just an ordinary Japanese house, half plaster, wood and paper, and roofed with heavy tiles. 3 A\*as sure that it would be gone, so av© started to walk home, for there were no conveyances to tak© us. All the way was crowded Avith people, and in th© centre of the tram line families were camped with the few things that they had time to grab as the came, and meet cf their houses were either in ruips or were badly damaged. The stocks of all the email shops were emptied into the road. The first sight of the damage was appalling, and al- , though everyone was anxious and had received a great shock* everywhere were

smiling faces. and cheery remarks. The people of .Japan are not like us. for they receive disaster very passively and with jy smile,where we would be in tears. 11 took us a good hour to reach our ■ homo, and many were the sad sights that \vq sow on the way. "Wo saw old l women badly hurt, but not complaining, as they were being carried along on the backs of others to places of safety. When we reached our little district, we found that most of the I houses were in ruins, and to our | astonishment we found our house I standing as if it had never been touched by the quake at. all. Inside there was not a thine broken of our j personal belongings, and only the house j had become loose in its joints, and i cracks were to be seen here and ihere. i which were trifles compared with other i houses near by. GREAT CITY IN FLAMES. That night was a night of horror, for by four o'clock in the afternoon, the sky was dense with smoke, and we guessed the rest. At 6 p.m. the sky glared for miles like a furnace, and wo set out for Kudan Hill, ore of the highest spots in Tokyo. From there we beheld pretty well the whole city in flames. We saw districts beneath us, bigger than Christ church and Wellington put together, all in mins and nothing but glowing coals and red ashes left. As far as the eye could reach all was fire, end even right up to us. streets were burning and in flames. Every fire engine in the city that was left- was working with all its might, but nothing could quench the flames, for there was a wind blowing, that was carrying all before it. It was a cruel sight. The worst feature of i it all was the thousands of refugees 1 coming in every direction making for our district, which was the only safe one left. We saw old men and women, black ard bleeding. little children trailing behind their mothers, many of them who had lost their fathers. Women had their husbands’ coats nailed on to high sticks and were carrying them in the vain hopes of their beloved ones recognising them as they passed. Already every park was full of furniture, and rude shelters were being put up to house the unfortunates. It was more terrible than any war. for the- devastation was far worse than anything that a bom'bardment ' could do. We watched it till it made US sick, then we returned home. The whole of our suburb was in darkness, and the only light we had was a blazing red moon and the glaring reflection in the sky of the fire. All night ; -vre sat up and watched the flames creeping uearer from every side. Ihe only place that seemed safe was the palace of the Emperor, which stood 1 in the middle of it all. surrounded by a deep and wide moat and high walls. • Much of that had been broken by the ■ earthquake, but no fire bad touched it. ‘ All round us people were pocking up ■ their goods and w<fro leaving for the ‘ nearest fields and parks, and we were • warned to be ready for flight. To : make the terror of it worse, were the l awful shocks of earth tremors all night 1 long. The first day and night we had over 400 quakes, and it was not safe > to be in the house at all. We took i mattresses outside on the concrete

paths, and there we tried to get a few winks every now and again. GHASTLY SCENES. The second day we were told that the fire had almost cessed, and so we decided to walk ip to the city to hear the nows if there was any. The whole way was strewn with wreckage, and there as nothing left standing of the houses wc passed coming homo the previous day. Hundreds and thousands of people were coming from the city, and the pitiful sights that we saw made our hearts bleed. We saw the business section of the city, covering many miles, just a turning heap of wreckage as far as the eye could reach. Wo saw all those handsome buildings that have been put up within the last few years reduced to ashes. Only one little clump of buildings remained intact, and our office was amongst them, also the fine central .station of Tokyo. Already motor trucks full of doctors and nurses and provisions were being rushed to attend to the wounded and refugees, and the streets were a roar of mo Cor traffic. Luckily there seemed to he much gasoline, and every one that had motor cycles, cars and conveyances left ’had lent them to the authorities for the public use to aid in relief work. The most shocking sight of all were the piles of dead

that were being extricated from the ruined buildings. To-day we were told that about 40,000 were in heaps all ready to be burned in the piles that they stood in, for proper burials are impossible. We saw some sights that turned our blood cold. In one part of the moat T saw a habv that had been roasted out of all recognition, and whose parents had thrown it into the water to escape further pain. In another place I saw a man head downwards without a stitch of clothing upon his body, quite dead and horribly charred. N’ear him lay a skeleton of a man that had been ca-ught by the fire, and nothing remained of him but his white skeleton and skull. HORRIBLE DEATHS. In Asakusa Park, where all the great amusement houses of Tokyo are, the dead are piled in dozens in the ponds there. When the fire broke out there was no escape anywhere but the large ponds. and many hundreds jumped into them. They say that the water there boiled, and many died in this way. There were many bodies of geishas, pretty dainty creatures all dressed in their gayest kimonos, fresh from their entertaining, drowned and mutilated. Altogether tire sights were too awful to describe at length. T can give instances of the humane side of the Japanese, but time and space does not permit me to do so. I saw one little dog on the path. in the centre of many ruins- Jts body was healthy and whole, but it. had escaped by running through the burning ashes, and its feet were all burnt, raw. _ It could not walk, but some Japanese were keeping it alive by feeding it with biscuits and had provided a tin of water for it to drink from- This little creature was getting more sympathy from the refugees than they were giving each other in their awful plight. FOOD FOR. THE STARTING Onlv those that are here can have any idea of what this terrible- tragedy has been. Yokohama is. all gone: there is nothing left of it at all. There are about 72,000 dead there, and they cannot get the bodies out of the ruins. Everyone is awfully good, for British warships are arriving, and American also, laden with food ami rice and bread and potatoes, and now to-day there is not one of the survivors that is not being fed. Shacks and houses are being put up everywhere, and the Crown Prince has given many million yen to relieve the sufferers, and others are doing the same. Every country is helping in fact, and soon there will be sufficient food and shelter for everyone. I have never seen a single case of a woman crying all the time except on the first day. and that was from terror. Now they are all resigned to their fate. and are bearing it with brave, faces and smiles One man in my office lost his Iwifs. all his children, and his mother, his house, and everything he owned, and yet he smiled, and that he l must start his life again, as others I were even worse than he was. I I cannot write, more, for I am doing I this by the light of a small temple * candle* the only light that we can get.

and I have not the ho art to write irmoh. but I wanted the people of Christchurch to get some first-hand n«ws from one who had been right in the midst of this awful affair. The one thing that is now worrying me is that we cannot get any communication with the outer world, and every day 1 try to send a cable to "New Zealand, blit T cannot, and 1 know the agonies of anxiety that my relatives and others will be going through until they get some news. As far as Tam persona fiv concerned. T nm safe and well, and the school at which 1 teach English is safe, too. and will resume in a few weeks, so T am told, though 1 have doubts about it at present. Also mv office will take temporary premises and resume work immediately, so that I am at nresent one of the lucky ones. Warships' are taking many of the foreigners away, for they have lost everything and many of their own relatives, and are anxious to return to their own countries: but it will be foolish to leave when there is work to be done here, and 1 may stay on a little till things are a little more normal. although Tokyo will be no city at all again for many years. There is nothing to attract one to .stay here at all. ami it is only matter of time, and when railways ore normal and things get going again, it may be better to leave Japan or move to another centreAlready the shakes of the earthquakes are ceasing, and people are much more cheerful, and in a few days we are fold that, we will have the electric light again to cheer us a bit ot nigh' To-day 1 saw Mrs Shathin, a granddaughter of Professor Pickerton. also of Mr George "MTntyrs. of Christchurch She is s»fe and is well, and her house wae saved from the fire. Those that are saved have much to be thankful for, and it will be many years before we will be able to erase the [memory of this dreadful calamity from