WIDENING AREA OF DEATH AND DEVASTATION

Chronicle (Levin), 23 December 1946, Page 5

WIDENING AREA OF DEATH AND DEVASTATION

Received Sundav, .11 p.m. TOKIO, Dec. 22. The British occupation foree headquarters at Kochi in Shikoku were lestroyed by the earthquake vesterday out there were no casualties. The Kure naval base was severely shalceu .ind subseipient lires destroyed six ouildings but 110 allied propertv was hunaged. The known dead thusfar total 592, but some of the hardest hit areas are still isolated so the total will oe higher. Fresh reports coming in spread, the picture of devastation far beyond the iriginal scene with deaths reported in he Git'u prefecture 130 miles west of L'okio and tlie Ishikawa prefecture aorth of Gifu. Other deaths occurred over 450 miles southwest of Tokio in he seaside prefecture of Oita on .vyusliu at the western end of the inland Sea whieh itself became a funnel. Tlie tidal wave's damage on he Inland Sea's shores is reported to oe severe. The heaviest loss of life thusfar re inrted occurred on Shikoku 's lowlying ■astern shores. The United States Yrmy reports that 127 Japanese were killed and 130 injured seriously and 100 houses destroyed in the Kochi disrrict. The Ariuy vesterday received reports that 200 famiiies had been wiped out, but these are apparently erroneous. Reporting dircct from the Wakayama prefecture for the first time the Associated Press eorrespondent said ihe authorities estimated that 18,000 were homeless iri Kainan alone. Avvaji Island, whieh was squarely in ihe tidal wave's patli, is still isolated. Osaka, Japan 's second largest- city with 3,000,000 population, escaped major damage, but has rations ior only 50,000 persons for live days. The earthquake destroyed 884 buildings and damaged more than 2000 at Okayama, 90 miles ■westward of Osaka, but tlie prefecture is iu sufficiently

good condition to offer aid to the neighbourliood. The Kyodo News Ageney reports that the fishing town of Kushimoto on the southern coast of the Wakayama prefecture with 10,000 population was entirely washed away. The nearby city of Tanabe whieh is somewhat larger was deserted when the survivors from the tidal wave took refuge on the. higii ground. The American Twentylifth In fantry Division with headquarters at Osaka sent a crasli-boat to devastaled Shingu to rescue six niarooned soldiers. Shingu is reported to have been burnt out by a tire wliich followed a 15-foot tidal wave. The newspaper Yomiuri " reports that a Japanese ex-serviceman at Kainan tried to race the tidal wave with a baby in his arms. The man rushed from his home and lled before the towering wave hut its speed was greater than his and in desperation he hegan to clamber up a telephone pole. He reached safety hut the wave wrenched the baby from his grasp. All the railvvavs in Shikoku are reported to be blocked and the roads ehoked with debris. The origfnal earthquake is offieially' described as five times greater than the 1923 shock whieh destroyed Tokio.