A MIGHTY ’QUAKE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 659, 11 October 1933, Page 3

A MIGHTY ’QUAKE

GR1M MEMORIES SHOCK WHICH OVERWHELMID ' YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. TRAGIC LOSS OF LIFE. ' Ten years ago to-day there occurred a most grievous natural calamity. The earthquake which overwhelmed , Tokio and Yokohama caused the deaths of nearly 150,000 pcrsons, writes a British eyewitness in* the London Daily Telegraph of September 1. Imagine the Somme battlefields~and the ruins of Ypres on a gigantic. but concentrated seale, and you haye a picture, though even then not realistic enough, of Tokio and the country around on that grim September morning. Tokio,, the capital city, was ra?ed to the ground, and Yokohama ythe great seaport town, was compltely. destroyed. in the disaster that horrified the world. A few faets and figures , show how overwhelming was ihe calamity:— j Lives lost igreater in number than ! all the Japanese casualties in the1 Russo-Japanese war. Over half a million houses destroyed and nearly two million people left homeless. j Tokio's devastated area alone exceeded fifteen square ■ miles — three times that of the San Franciseo visi- . tation in 1906. Loss of national wealth estimated at £550,000,000. j Uncanny Spectacle. I By day, as far as the eye could reach, were desolation and- destruction; by night the sky was lit by the glare of the great fires, the clouds, smoke and dust combining to make an awe-inspiring scene; while the ever-present stench of thousands of ■ unburied bodies polluted the stifling atmosphere. Numberless smsll groups starching for members of their families or for some remnant of their world possessions, added a note of pathos, while at the same time the prove rbial courage and stoicism of the Japanese raee were exemplified by attempts to rebuild homes while the ashes of the old were still hot. Queer little wooden signs, which sprar.g up qu'ckly on many sites announcing the name of the former owner, were reminisccnt of similar notice-boards indicating headquarters of batteries and companies in trenches and dug-outs on the battlefields of France and Flanders. Another scene, not unlike the exodus of French peasants from the districts east of Amiens in March, 1918, was the endless procession of refugees blocking- the country roads leading away from the ruined capital. The population cf Tokio was reduced by over one million souls by this mass emigration, a.nd it was not until 1930, seven years later, that the number of inhabitants again reached the preearthquake figure. , The Army's Part. In common with most of the foreig'n Embassies and Legations, and almost the entire business quarter, the Government offices suffered severely, and many, indeed, ' were obliterated completely. This fact, coupled with the hreakdown of' every means of com- ■ munication, made the promulgation of martial law inevitable. If ever a great city was as in the grip of war it was Tokio in September, 1923. ; The normal garrison of two divisions was gradually trebled, and the citizens thankfully gave themselves ( over to the care of the military authorities. The army became responsihle ( for everything. The maintenance of l law and order was its first duty, a compara.tively easy one among the j ohedient and discipline-loving citizens, j and the restoration of communications j the next, a'much harder task. Tokio and Yokohama were cut off not only from the outside world and • the rest of Japan but from each : other, alike by air, by wireless, by telegraph or telephone, by rail, by j tram, and even by road. j The arrival of British and Ameri- | can warships at Yokohama first en- ' ablcd wireless messages to be sent. ' But the army had other inslstent ' calls. The feeding of the population, " the care of the sick and injured, the ; provision and control of transport, f the blowing-up of partially destroyed buildings, the clearing of roads and [ canals, the repair of bridges — these f were all undertaken with an efficiency ■ and cheerfulness beyond all praise. [ Martial Tradiiton. [ But most valuable of all was the 1 moral effect created on the people at [ lai'ge by the presence and behaviour A of the troops. 1 Once again the descendants of • the , old Samurai had the chance to show to the world how well they knew and t valued their martial tradition. It is an interesting fact that the Scout Law of to-day bears a marked resem- l blance to the military code of Japan. t Meanwhile a great impression had j been made by the spontaneous messages of sympathy, the opening of re- ■ lief funds, the provision of food and *' building materials, and offers of help from foreign countries, notably America and the British Empire. The ' Japanese, from their statesmen downwards, did all in their power to assist the numerous foreigners. . _ j Wlhether it was in the shape of provisions for the Diplomatic C'orps — and that august body can seldom h'ave

been in such adversity since the Siege ! of the Legations in Peking in 1900 — |or shelter and clothing for junior 1 employees of Japanese and foreign firms, the ingrained feeling of respect and courtesy for iguests was shown in J striking fashion. To many the hour of noon on September 1 had appeared as the end of the world, and in particular must it have appeared so to those on board the Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Australia, when she was about to cast off from the wharf at Yokohama for Vancouver. Nothing finer than the conduct of the captain, officers, crew, and passengers could be imagined. As memories grow dim there is a ■ danger that the real and most important lesson of the earthquake, apparent enough at the time, may be forgotten. One of the greatest of our public servants, in a letter written shortly after the disaster, put his finger on the essential point: "A people that can emerge from such a catastrophe creditahly will certainly be a great nation." The Supreme Test. N0 truer statement was ever written about Japan. Since her recent emergence from age-long seclusion, Japan has been frequently and greatly tested; and always she believes in h'er destiny, and in that destiny heing- for the benefit of humanity. But no triumph has been more signal than that by which she faced and repaired an unprecedented natural calamity which had destroyed the very heart and nerve-centre of her empire.