Japan Cities Laid Waste -- September 1, 2023

Casper Sunday Tribune, 01-September-1923

100 years ago, on 01-September-1923, the Great Kantō Earthquake devasted a large part of Japan. Fires spread through cities and at least 140,000 people were killed. Rumors that Koreans had started the fires led to massacres. Tokyo was usually spelled "Tokio" in American newspapers. The 13-story building that was destroyed was the Ryōunkaku, Japan's first skyscraper. The prince regent was Hirohito who later became the Shōwa Emperor. 

JAPAN CITIES LAID WASTE

Conflagration Follows Quake in Jokio and Yokohama

DEATH TOLL

TO BE GREAT

Seven Hundred Reported Killed as 12-

Story Tower In Amusement Park Is

Leveled; Towns Along Gulf Wiped

Out; Details of Disaster Lacking

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 1. -- Tokio, the capital city of Japan and Yokohama one of the principal seaports have been stricken by fire following an earthquake.

Many of their principal buildings have been leveled, its citizens scattered in terror, its communication with the outside world severed, and its future in doubt.

An earthquake which last night shook with terrific force the entire eastern side of Hondo (Honshu - JT), the principal island in the Japanese archipelago, on which Tokio is situated, leveled more than a score of great buildings destroyed all means of communication with the rest of the empire, and rendered useless the city’s water system so that the fire which started shortly after the worst of the series of shocks, ate its way unhampered through the city.

A message to the office of the Radio corporation of America here tonight from the superintendent of its station at Tomioka, in the province of Iwaki (Fukushima Prefecture -- JT), 144 miles from the Imperial city, give merely a hint, it is believed of the scenes of indescribable confusion which has changed Tokio in the space of a few hours from a busy populous city into a "place of hell."

This radiogram stated that Tokio was burning. A dispatch from the same source early this morning reported that Yokohama was in flames.

The latest word to be received is that the Tokio conflagration is rapidly spreading to surrounding towns. From the description, which, although brief, was charged with significance, furnished by the Radio corporation superintendent at Tomioka. It appears that practically the entire business section of the "city of the sun" has been destroyed.

Many buildings were leveled by the quake. Others are being burned to the ground as the fire gains headway, eating its way along on the ruins of those made kindling by the terrific force of the earth’s upheaval.

Department stores, railway stations, clubs where the peers of the empire are wont to gather, commercial structures, one of these of twelve stories in height, on original "gamble" in that land of earth tremors, have been wiped out and the masses of debris acres in extent have taken their places.

Fire broke out in a score of places at once, roaring through the business and residential sections, this message indicates and rapidly finding its way to nearby cities and villages.

What the situation may be is only a matter of conjecture.

Seven hundred deaths were reported in the fall of a 13-story tower at Asakusa, in a radio message received by the Radio corporation of America from Its station at Tomioka. The message was filed at 8.20 p. m. It read:

"Seven hundred deaths reported by fall of 12-story tower Asakusa. Tidal wave in bay of Suruga where numerous boats sank. Most of the houses at Numazu collapsed. In Tokio the imperial theater gave way. The railway station at Ueno burned down. It is rumored the Imperial Palace is in danger but this is not certain."

A later message received by the Radio corporation reported that the prince regent and the imperial sanctuary had been saved.

Asakusa, wherein Is located the tower that fell, is a large amusement park in Tokio. It is known as the "Coney Island" of Japan. The tower was recently condemned by police.

The tower was a sort of a Ferris wheel arrangement on which many people mounted.

The bay of Suruga is west of Tokio on the east coast.

The Imperial theater, reported to have been destroyed is across the street from the Imperial Palace. The Tokio Central railway station, probably the largest of Its kind, is nearby. The fact that this district was affected bespeaks the violence of the quake elsewhere as the ground is high there and the shocks are always more violent on lower land.

The high location was not affected by the previous shocks of importance.

The Ueno railway station is also in Tokio.

Most of the details contained in the message from Tomioka were gleaned from the newspapers of Kendai, which apparently was just on the edge of the earthquake, so close, in fact, that its railway station was leveled by the upheaval.

"The damage due to the quake," this message said, "did not extend to the western side of Hondo, but on the east side It was of terrific force."

A dispatch from the station of the Radio corporation of America at Tomioka to the offices of the company here, received here shortly after 6:30 tonight, said that a refugee reaching Sendai had told a harrowing story of the situation in Tokio.

The refugee reported, according to this dispatch, that at the first shock of the earthquake several buildings collapsed and fires broke out in many places. The towns of Fukagawa and Senja have been totally destroyed, the refugee said, and that the death toll in and about the Imperial city is staggering.

The flames which now are destroying the city broke out in the Mitsukoshi department store and spread in all directions. The headquarters of the metropolitan police force has been destroyed and the Imperial theater reduced to ashes, the refugee reported, to the radio station, the dispatch said.

The city was still In flames when the refugee departed northward, the dispatch said, with fire spreading toward Senju and Shinagawa. The flames of the burning city may be seen for a distance of seven miles, the dispatch said. Railroad bridges have collapsed in many places.

A tidal wave followed the trembler in the vicinity of Yokohama, but what its extent was, and what damage it did, cannot be ascertained. The harbor of Yokohama, the seaport of the imperial city, always is crowded with shipping survived the wall of water which was raised, and Yokohama is afire, as earlier messages today indicated, it is probable that many Americans have found safety aboard vessels in the harbor.

The people of Tokio seem to have been completely demoralized by the catastrophe.

"Refugees are running in all directions," the message stated.

The cities of Asakura, Kanda, Kondo, Fukuzawa, Shitawaya and a score of smaller towns have already been attacked by the flames, the message from Tomioka said.

Indicating the damage to railroads, the message said disaster is reported to have overtaken several trains enroute toward Tokio at the time the earthquake started.

The extent of the earthquake seems to be roughly defined by its edge nearing Osaka and Kobe on the south, Senegai on the north, Shizuoka on the west, and some undetermined spot at sea on the east.

It is from the radio station at Tomioka that most of the details of the disaster have emanated. The Commercial Cable company's line into Yokohama from Guam was snapped during the upheaval. The company, attempting to get news from the stricken island by way of Shanghai, has found its line of communication barred at Nagasaki, where it located the "end of the cable" office. From here on into Tokio stretches of short cable and land lines. These have been put completely out of commission also, a short dispatch came from Osaka, probably by way of Londan. reporting the severity of the earthquake but since that time nothing has come from the interior of Japan.