Evening Post. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1931. THE EXAMPLE OF JAPAN

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 32, 7 February 1931, Page 12

Evening Post. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1931. THE EXAMPLE OF JAPAN

When, at the beginning of September, 1923, an earthquake reduced a large part of Tokio, the capital city of Japan, to ashes, and wiped out Yokohama, its chief commercial port, with the loss of 99,331 killed, 103,733 wounded, and 43,476 missing, a calamity so" appalling naturally made an irresistible appeal to the sympathies of the world. The United States, the wealthiest and in matters of this kind the most generous of the nations, took the lead. The American Red Cross Society, under the chairmanship of President Cpolidge, decided at once to raise a relief fund of 5,000,000 dollars, and in the course of a few days twice that amount was forthcoming. In London the Lord Mayor's fund speedily reached £100,000, the Salvation Army, raised £30,000, and among the oversea Dominions it is sufficient to mention that New Zealand was able to send £24,000. On the last previous occasion when a similar calamity had appealed to her benevolence New Zealand, through no fault of her own, was less successful. The San Francisco earthquake of the 18th,1 April, 1906, which had resulted in the destruction of a large part of San Francisco by fire, had led to the opening of relief funds under the auspices of the New Zealand Government, but the movement was stopped by the veto of' President Roosevelt. A Press Association message which we published on the 261h of that month reported that Congress, which had voted 1,000,000 dollars for the relief of the sufferers, had been asked, by the President to provide 1,500,000 more,-and continued as follows: — Mr. Roosevelt expresses deep appreciation of the sympathy and the prompt and very generous offers of assistance which have been-received from individuals abroad, but states that nevertheless such offers of help are refused. But President Roosevelt's rejection of outside help was not confined to that of individuals, as our comments on this message" show. Obvious reasons of State policy are sufficient; we ,wroto, to account for Ms refusal of the proffered aid of a foreign trading company, but the case, is different as regards friendly help from a nation near akin and connected no less by ties of friendship than by race.Under these circumstances it seems to us that the President's, unqualified statement, "Outside help is not required,'.' while certainly open to criticism, is a i declaration of independence that we are bound to respect. Yet the masterful spirit of Mr, Seddon was reluctant to respect it, and we were constrained to protest against the "precipitation" and the "tactlessness" with which he resented it after the Mayors of Auckland and Dunedin had accepted die decision as final. It was a rare and paradoxical difference of opinion between two strong, men, the one claiming the right to help the other's country and that other refusing it.'" Rossetti, who wrote a great sonnet, "On the Refusal of Aid between Nations," and inferred from .this refusal ' That the earth falls asunder, being old, might perhaps have found in this clash on the refusal, not of the right to receive aid but of the right to give it, some evidence that the old earth is renewing its y6uth or advancing towards the millennium. President Roosevelt, of course, carried, his point, and though' one must honour his motives .there was really a deeper and more complex problem of international ethics involved than could be settled offhand, as he doubtless settled it, by the instincts of generosity and patriotic pride. If 3ie United States was right in rejecting the help even of kindred nations in 1906, what right had its people in 1923 to lead the world in the generosity of their contributions to the relief of Japan- after a similar disaster? The instincts which brought the Americans to the help of Japan within twenty-four hours after learning of her need were surely higher than those which had denied the same privilege to other nations on the previous occasion. But the practical purposes of the moment fortunately do not demand a solution of this interesting problem. It is not to the United States of 1906 but to the Japan of 1923 that New Zealand must look for guidance and inspiration in her calamity. When nothing was left on 25 square miles of Japan's capital but smoking ruins, her chief sea-port Had been wiped out, and more than 100,000 of her people killed, Japan neither sought nor refused the sympathy of the world. But with no thought of outside help at all, she set about to deserve it by the magnificent spirit in which she' at once proceeded to help herself. The problem v of reconstruction which the Japanese Government and the city authorities had to face in Tokio was probably as far-reaching and as complicated as has ever been tackled: with success. It was not merely a case 'of rebuilding to the old frontages and in the old style, but of providing a new, lay-out for the whole of the devastated area and rebuilding in materials that would be, as far as possible, proof against both fire.and earthquake. The old street system of Tokio had been very incomplete and unsuitable as to position and width, an inheritance from feudal days when streets followed the original windings of the paths on which they wero formed. The Japanese town-planners had to face the same task which Sir Chris-

topher Wren was asked to undertake after the Great Fire of London in 1666, but private selfishness was not allowed to wreck their scheme as it had wrecked his. In a review of "Tokio Reconstruction in Detail," the "Japan Magazine" of NovemberDecember, 1929, compared the work with what was probably the greatest scheme of the kind previously completed in modem times. According to tho reconstruction plan tho total area of residential land involved in the construction or enlargement of roads, parks, canals, etc., was to be 1,000,000 tsubo (1 tsubo equals 4 square yards). So vast a programme or area of reconstruction is, of course, unprecedented. Records of the time of Napoleon 111. show that he ordered his engineer (Hausmann) to widen the streets and thoroughfares of Paris, the area of land assigned for reconstruction covering 2,720,000 square yards, about 670,000 tsubo; and it required nineteen years, 1851 to 1890, to complete the work. In comparison with this, tho work undertaken in the reconstruction of Tokio was much more vast and difficult. And against the nineteen years whicli Hausmann required, the Mikado's engineers were able to complete their much more arduous undertaking in seven. ... The magnitude and value of this work may be measured by the fact that whereas in the old Tokio the ratio of street area to city area was 12 per cent., it has been increased in the new Tokio to 28 per cent., which compares..favourably with the 25 per cent, of Paris and Berlin, and is not far behind New York's 35 per cent The total addition to the area of the city's streets, parks, and canals was 817 acres, valued at about £40,000,000. ' The 119 primary schools which had been destroyed were rebuilt in three-storied earthquake and fireproof steel reinforced concrete structures, each, with 24 classrooms, covering 'an area of 1220 tsuba. The Imperial University, secondary schools, hospitals, .and public buildings of all kinds had also to be rebuilt. Five^ hundred bridges, mostly of wood, were replace*! in fire and earthquake-proof material, at a cost exceeding £1,300,000. Four hundred and twenty cemeteries, with their 92,378. graves, had to be removed on account of land adjustments. For the same reason no less than 203,497 of the buildings whicli had survived had to be ; treated in the same way, and the care of from half a million to a million occupants during the process was one of a myriad of incidental problems. Facing disaster with1 this wonderful courage, enterprise, and forethought, the Japanese were able to make it the pretext, if the expression may be allowed, for a magnificent work of reconstruction, for which they might otherwise have had to wait for years or even for generations. At the outset of their undertaking the "Observer" queried whether any European people would have faced a similar calamity with equal resolution. The people of Napier and Hastings have answered that question^ Nothing could have been more admirable than the spirit ,which they have displayed. It is now for our Government and our people to make their cause. the nation's cause, and without faltering or begging for outside help to undertake the great work of restoration and see it through.