From TheBestLinks.com
The Great Kanto earthquake (関東大震災 kantō daishinsai) of September 1, 1923, struck at 11:58 in the morning the Kanto plain on the Japanese main island Honshu. The quake was recorded at a magnitude of 7.9 on the Richter scale, and destroyed the Japanese port city of Yokohama as well as surrounding prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, and Tokyo.
According to most reliable sources, at least 105,385 lost their lives and over 37,000 are missing believed to be dead. Most of the fatalies were caused by 88 fires which broke out separately and spread rapidly due to high winds from a typhoon near the Noto peninsula. In several places, firestorms were observed - the largest of which claimed at least 30,000 lives at Rikugun Honjo Hifukusho. As the earthquake had caused water mains to break, putting out the fires took nearly two full days until late morning of September 3rd.
Along with many lost lives, over 570,000 homes were destroyed, leaving an estimated 1.9 million homeless or refugee. The damage is estimated to exceed one billion U.S. dollars at the time of the earthquake.
The chaos and panic created by the earthquake led to rumours of Koreans looting and committing arson. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of Koreans and people from Okinawa were killed by civilians militia. The total death toll for Koreans including those killed by the disaster was estimated at around 6,000. In many places, check points were established that checked whether they were looters or merely trespassers. Socialists like Hirasawa Keishichi and anarchists like Osugi Sakae and Ito Noe were killed because of the fear that socialists and anarchists would use this opportunity to overthrow the government.
After the earthquake, Goto Shinpei organized a reconstruction plan of Tokyo with modern networks of roads, trains, and public services. Parks were placed all over Tokyo to work as a refugee spot and public buildings were constructed with a more severe standards than private buildings to accomodate refugees. However, breakout of and destructions by war severly limited the resource and in some places, constructions are still under way.
In 1960, September 1st was designated as Disaster Prevention Day to commemorate the earthquake and remind people of the importance of preparation as October and September are middle of the typhoon season. Public and private organizations host disaster drills. Tokyo is located near a fault line under Izu peninsula which, on average, causes a major earthquake about once every 70 years.
Also during the earthquake professor Iklodin noted mild tremors expanding and then his house collapsed.
External links
de:Großes Kanto-Erdbeben
ja:関東大震災
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