Everything about 1923 Great Kant Earthquake totally explained
The struck the
Kantō plain on the
Japanese main island of
Honshū at 11:58 on the morning of
September 1,
1923. Varied accounts hold that the duration was between 4 and 10 minutes. The phrase "Great Kanto earthquake" usually means this earthquake, but is sometimes used to refer to the Ansei-Edo Earthquake of 1855 (安政の大地震).
The quake was later estimated to have had a magnitude between 7.9 and 8.4 on the
Richter scale, with its epicenter deep beneath
Izu Ōshima Island in
Sagami Bay.
It devastated
Tokyo, the port city of
Yokohama, surrounding prefectures of
Chiba,
Kanagawa, and
Shizuoka, and caused widespread damage throughout the Kantō region. The power and intensity of the earthquake is easy to underestimate; but the 1923 earthquake managed to move the 93-ton statute of Buddha at Kamakura. The statue slid forward almost two feet.
Casualty estimates range from about 100,000 to 142,000 deaths, the latter figure including approximately 37,000 who went missing and were presumed dead.
According to Japanese construction company Kajima Kobori Research report on September 2005, 105,000 confirmed dead in 1923 quake.
Damage
Because the earthquake struck at lunchtime when many people were using fire to cook food, the damage and the number of fatalities were amplified due to fires which broke out in numerous locations. The fires spread rapidly due to high winds from a nearby
typhoon off the coast of
Noto Peninsula in Northern Japan and some developed into
firestorms which swept across cities. This caused many to die when their feet got stuck in melting tarmac; however, the single greatest loss of life occurred when around 38,000 people packed into an open space at the
Rikugun Honjo Hifukusho (Army Parade Ground) in downtown Tokyo were incinerated by a firestorm-induced
fire whirl. As the earthquake had caused water mains to break, putting out the fires took nearly two full days until late in the morning of
September 3. The fires were the biggest cause of death.
The Imperial Palace caught fire, but the Prince Regent was unharmed. The Emperor and Empress were at Nikko when the earthquake struck the city, and they were never in any danger.
Cases of homes being buried or swept away by landslides were particularly frequent in the mountainous areas and hilly coastal areas in western
Kanagawa Prefecture. These cases are reported to account for the deaths of about 800 people. At the railway station in the village of Nebukawa west of
Odawara, a collapsing mountainside plunged a passing passenger train with over 100 passengers downhill into the sea along with the entire station structure and the village itself.
Tsunami reached the coast within minutes in some areas, hitting the coast of
Sagami Bay,
Boso Peninsula,
Izu Islands and the east coast of
Izu Peninsula. Tsunami of up to 10 metres were recorded. Examples of tsunami damage include about 100 people killed along Yui-ga-hama beach in
Kamakura and an estimated 50 people on the
Enoshima causeway. Over 570,000 homes were destroyed, leaving an estimated 1.9 million homeless. Some evacuees were transported by ship to as far from Kanto as the port of Kobe in Kansai. The damage is estimated to have exceeded one billion U.S. dollars at contemporary values. There were 57 accountable aftershocks.
Post-quake violence
The panic and confusion created by the earthquake led to numerous false rumours spreading both inside and outside of the affected regions. Japanese newspaper articles carried confused stories, variously reporting the total annihilation of Tokyo, the Japanese cabinet getting wiped out, the entire
Kantō region sinking into the sea, the destruction of the
Izu Islands due to
volcanic eruptions, and a monster
tsunami reaching as far inland as
Akagi (at the northernmost corner of the Kantō Plain, almost halfway across the width of the country).
The
Home Ministry declared
martial law, and ordered all sectional police chiefs to make maintenance of order and security a top priority. One particularly pernicious rumor was that
ethnic Koreans were taking advantage of the disaster, committing arson and robbery, and were in possession of bombs. In the aftermath of the quake, mass murder of Koreans by vigilante mobs occurred in urban Tokyo and Yokohama, fueled by rumors of rebellion and sabotage. Some newspapers reported the rumors as fact, which led to the most deadly rumor of all: that the Koreans were poisoning wells. The numerous fires and cloudy well water (a little-known effect of a big quake) all seemed to confirm the rumors in the eyes of the panic-stricken survivors living among the rubble.
Vigilante groups set up roadblocks in cities, towns and villages across the region. Because people with Korean accents pronounced "G" or "J" in the beginning of words differently, 15円 50銭 (
jū-go-en, go-jus-sen) and がぎぐげご (
gagigugego) were used as
shibboleths. Anyone who failed to pronounce them properly was deemed Korean. Some were told to leave, but many were beaten or killed. Moreover, anyone mistakenly identified as Korean, such as Chinese,
Okinawans, and Japanese speakers of some regional
dialects, suffered the same fate.
In response to this, the
Japanese Army and the police conducted operations to protect Koreans. More than 2,000 Koreans were taken in for protection from the mobs across the region, although recent studies have shown that there were incidents where army and police personnel are known to have condoned or even colluded in the vigilante killings in some areas [citationneeded]. The chief of police of
Tsurumi (or
Kawasaki by some accounts) is reported to have publicly drunk the well-water to disprove the rumour that Koreans have been poisoning wells. In some towns, even police stations into which Koreans had escaped were attacked by mobs, whereas in other neighbourhoods residents took steps to protect them. The Army distributed flyers denying the rumour and warning civilians against attacking Koreans, but in many cases vigilante activity only ceased as a result of Army operations against it.
The total death toll from these disturbances is uncertain; according to the investigation by the Home Ministry, confirmed victims of vigilante justice were 231 Koreans killed and 43 injured, 3 Chinese killed, 59 Japanese (including Okinawans) killed and 43 injured. Actual estimates range as high as 6,600, although politically independent studies put the figure at just over 2,500. Three hundred and sixty-two Japanese civilians were eventually charged (for murder, attempted murder, manslaughter and assault), though most got off with nominal sentences, and even those who were sent to jail were later released with a general pardon commemorating the marriage of
Prince Hirohito. In contrast, the actual number of Koreans who were charged for crimes during this period were 2 for murder, 3 for arson, 6 for robbery and 3 for rape.
All of those charged with the killings were civilians, despite the fact that some military and police units are now known to have taken part in the crimes, prompting accusations of a cover-up. Though the word wasn't known in Japan at the time, the events have many of the characteristics of a
pogrom, targeting
Jews and other ethnic and religious groups in various countries [citationneeded].
On top of this violence,
Socialists like
Hirasawa Keishichi,
anarchists like
Sakae Osugi and
Noe Ito, and Chinese communal leader, Ou Kiten, were abducted and killed by members of the police who claimed the victims had intended to use the crisis as an opportunity to overthrow the Japanese government.
The importance of obtaining and providing accurate information following natural disasters has been emphasized in Japan ever since. Earthquake preparation literature in modern Japan almost always directs citizens to "carry a portable radio and use it to listen to reliable information, and [notto] be misled by rumours" in the event of a big quake.
Aftermath
Following the devastation of the earthquake, some in government considered the possibility of moving the capital elsewhere. Possible candidates suggested for the new capital included
Himeji and
Keijo (
Gyeongseong in Korean; present-day
Seoul), which was under Japanese rule at the time.
After the earthquake,
Gotō Shimpei organized a reconstruction plan of Tokyo with modern networks of
roads,
trains, and public services.
Parks were placed all over Tokyo as refuge spots and public buildings were constructed with stricter standards than private buildings to accommodate refugees. However, the outbreak of
World War II and the subsequent destruction severely limited resources.
The unfinished
battlecruiser Amagi was being completed as an
aircraft carrier at
Yokosuka. However, it was damaged beyond repair in the earthquake. It was scrapped, and the unfinished fast battleship
Kaga replaced it.
Beginning in
1960, every
September 1 is designated as
Disaster Prevention Day to commemorate the earthquake and remind people of the importance of preparation, as September and October are the middle of the typhoon season. Schools, public and private organizations host disaster drills. Tokyo is located near a
fault line beneath the
Izu peninsula which, on average, causes a major earthquake about once every 70 years. Every year on this date, schools across Japan take a moment of silence at the precise time the earthquake hit in memory of the lives lost during this tragic event.
There are low-key memorial facilities in a small park in
Sumida ward,
Tokyo, at the site of the open space in which 30,000 people were killed by a single firestorm. The park houses a Buddhist-style memorial hall/museum, a memorial bell donated by Taiwanese Buddhists, a memorial to the victims of
World War II Tokyo air raids and a memorial to the Korean victims of the vigilante killings.
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