Vi Bruce writes home to her mother, Rose Mary (Caldwell) Bruce, who left Yokohama for England two months before the earthquake. When the earthquake strikes at two minutes to noon, Vi, her brothers Frank and Maurice and her father Sydney are out and about in Yokohama and Tokyo. All survive. By twelve noon, the entire city was leveled and 140,000 people had lost their lives. The Great Kanto Earthquake was one of the five deadliest earthquakes ever recorded.
First Hand Account of the Great Kanto Earthquake, 1 September,1923
95 Kitano ___, Kobe
Sept 9th, 1923
Dear Mother,
Until this date (Sept 9th) I have not been able to settle down to anything like writing letters, reading, etc. The terrible earthquake having taken place on Sept 1st you can see how long it has taken me to gather my shattered nerves together sufficiently to concentrate on a letter.
Up ‘til now I have been waiting for more earthquakes and every little crack of the building I happen to be in at any time is enough to make me jump and my heart to almost jump out of me. I suppose you understand that I have lost everything including your coat and fox which were in my room. I and the rest of the [expats?] with very few exceptions escaped with just what clothes we had on at the time.
Although my life has been spared I cannot help feeling a little sorrowful at having lost things that have taken me 3 or 4 years to collect, my beautiful fox fur and fur coat among them. But I am no different to anybody else I guess and shall stay here a while to try and pick up a little.
I expect you should like to know what I was doing and where I was at the time of the quake. So will give as fully as possible what I can as I guess the rest of the family would be glad of some firsthand information instead of entirely relying on the newspapers.
There not being usual work on Saturday morning, I left the office at twenty to twelve. Guy Heller of whom I have spoken in a previous letter came round to take me on the Empress of Australia which should have sailed at twelve. We however changed our minds and as the car had come down to the office before going to the station to fetch Dad and Frank, Guy and I jumped in and went to the station.
We had not arrived there more than two minutes when a terrible rumble was heard like an express train coming into the station. The chauffeur gave an extraordinary grunt and dashed for the open, Guy and I doing the same. After hearing all the buildings in the [area?] have fallen including telegraph wires and other kinds and when we could see a little through the terrible dust from fallen buildings I told the chauffeur to drive home as I knew it would be no use waiting for Dad as the trains after a quake like that would sure to be delayed and I was anxious to see if 203 [203 Bluff, their house] had gone over the cliff.
When we got to Sakurzarito (sp) Station we found the open space so broken up that we had to abandon the car and make our way as best we could along the creek, jumping over great parts or mounds where the earth had either fallen away or been heaped up as if by magic. It was an act of providence that there was no current in the wires altho’ you may be sure I did not touch one. The streets were a regular network of wires and it was very hard to keep a footing over the broken ground.
I don’t know what I should have done so far from home without Guy. He was perfectly wonderful. He seemed to keep up as though he were used to it as an everyday occurrence and one would never have thought that the kid had only been in the country three months. He literally dragged me home, altho’ I would have stopped for a rest many times.
We were filthy in no time as it was now raining and the dust was fearful. You cannot imagine it at all. The water mains broke with the first shock so that the Yokohama Park was almost flooded. We had to run along thro’ 6 miles of sloppy mud towards Hanazono Bashi by the Park and we were caked with mud to our knees. Japanese yelled to us to go to the Park but we took no notice and made our way as best we could over wreckage strewn right across the road.
We were just able to get across the wooden bridge at the bottom of Jizin Zalch (sp) altho’ both sides of the canal banks had given way and the bridge was left in the middle. The Temple Court was already a flaming mass as we tore up the hill. And as the bottom of the steps was blocked we had to go thru the temple yard which was then on fire. Our house was still standing altho’ it had a decided list towards the town, there having been a landslide at the back of the house. The kitchen had completely disappeared and what remained was burning.
Tired as I was, I ran down the side of the house, which any minute was ready to fall and yelled to Guy to save the house. I had fully intended entering the house to gather up a few things but I was so exhausted that all I could do was lie on the grass and gaze at excited groups of Japanese who were beginning to appear from nowhere apparently.
Some asked me where they could find a doctor, others wanted me to sell my clothes, others wanted food. I just waved them away while Guy stood guard over me and prevented any more from bothering me.
By about two o’clock (we had had ___ _____) the fire along the Bluff had crept around our section and so in order not to get trapped we had to go round into the [neighbour’s] kitchen garden to escape the terrible heat of two or three houses burning at once. As I had not seen the rest of the family since morning, I did not know whether they were alive or dead and only found out next morning.I refused to leave our vicinity of the Bluff in case Dad or one of the others arrived.
During the early afternoon an old American lady came down into the garden. She said she had fallen with part of the roof ____ a top window of ______ ______, rolled down the bank and was picked up by a Japanese who brought her over to us. Having her to look after I forgot myself for a time.
About six o’clock that evening when Guy and I were gazing at the ruins of our home from the gate, Mr Holly came along and insisted that we spend the night on the race course with his wife. As we had no food or water we were glad to do as he said and made our way as best we could over the heaps of debris in the dirty village which fortunately had not burned. We could buy no food of any sort in the village so had to rely on what we could loot out of the field near the race course.
All the time at the [house?] there was no sign of the servants and I wondered if they had been in the kitchen at the time. However, just as I got round the corner towards Hakamura Aoki I saw ______ across the road from somebody’s garden and clutched hysterically at my arm and begging news of the rest of the family. Of course I could tell her nothing and told her not to worry. She said that all her children were safe and the other amah whose nerves were almost as bad was with her. That is the last I saw of them.
Some of the Bluff foreigners had already congregated in the course but the Holly’s found that the Griunnesey’s (sp) was more comfortable. So we transferred to that place about 7pm. As was the case with many houses, probably including our own, all those which did not completely collapse were shaken considerably inside causing causing the upper stories to topple downwards and form a mass of debris in the basement or ground floor, altho’ the outward appearance of the house may appear practically normal.
It was a most extraordinary sensation during the worst of the shock. I described it as this – as I ran from under the big iron bridge outside K. Station I was lifted completely off the ground and thrown back. I felt as tho’ I was in the air and only touched the ground at intervals. It was impossible to keep your balance and Guy and I had to cling to each other to keep from falling. Most of the Japs around us were thrown to the ground. The tension in the atmosphere was awful and the earth rocked like a dinghy on a choppy sea.
To get back to events as they happened the first night. Smaller earthquakes continued throughout the night and to all accounts have still been felt up to now [Sep 9] in certain parts. The red flare in the sky told us that more of Yokohama was being reduced to ashes. The only thing that we saved besides what we had on was an old Mackintosh which Dad brought from home which happened to be in the garage. I think the only thing that did not burn on the Bluff was our garage, it merely collapsed. Guy and I had to share the old Mack that night.
We were not alone with the Hollys. About 3 or 4 other Americans joined us. The ridiculous Japanese soon lost their heads and all night (we couldn’t sleep) we heard intermittent yells coming from the direction of the dirty village which they were looting. Looting in Yokohama is still going on and some rather terrible stories have since reached us which may or may not be true. About 7am next morning Geoffrey Feaion (sp) came along and said that Dad and Frank were already on the Empress of Australia since they had walked thro’ wreckage from Ouiori and that Dad wanted us at once on the boat.
Just then MacPherson and 2 or 3 other foreigners came along and I asked them to go along with me. You cannot imagine what it is to see miles and miles of ruins if you have ever seen any. It is a truly horrible sight. From the beginning of the dirty village to the Grand Hotel corner where we got into the lifeboats it was nothing but ruins. Nothing stood above a foot high. I did not recognize one inch of the Bluff the whole way unless I stopped to figure it out.
We had to walk along the whole of the Bluff and go down Camp Hill as the town from Jizin Zaleh (sp) was absolutely impassable. Camp Hill was an absolute mass of ruin and it seemed impossible to imagine that the day before it was lined with prosperous shops of all descriptions and as you left it. The town looking toward Theatre Street from the foot of Camp Hill was absolutely flat and a few Japs were making for the shore. The corner of the Bund (sp) where the new bridge still is by the Grand that was had given way so that it formed a slope to the water’s edge. Frank I saw at the bottom of Camp Hill as he had left Dad to look for me.
We didn’t have long to wait before a lifeboat from an American boat “Steel Navigator” [a freighter] came to shore and took about 30 or 40 foreigners on board who had gathered there waiting to be taken on to one of the ships in the harbor. There were plenty of ships in the harbor which stood by in case of emergency. Very few left the port during the two days that we were there.
On Tuesday morning at 6am we sailed for Kobe much to everybody’s relief. None of us had any idea where Maurice was except that he had gone down to see Dick McCleary off to Canada on the “Australia” and consequently at the time of the earthquake was taken aboard with the rest of the visitors to the boat who were still on the wharf as the boat had just left the pier when the disaster occurred.
Mrs. Calbeldu who was transferred to the Steel Navigator on the Sunday told me the concrete wharf broke in two and one man fell into the water. They yelled to the officers on the moving boat to take them aboard again and of course the Empress did so. Fortunately the French boat “Andre Lebon” was on the opposite side and both boats were very soon crowded with injured, dying or uninjured people who continued to arrive through the day (Saturday).
It was not considered safe for women to be ashore at all especially without a male escort, so you can guess I was jolly glad to have MacPherson, Lefevre, Guy and Grippen for an escort down to the boat on Sunday morning from the Grimmesey’s. The Japs up there were already getting a bit lively and a band of 6 or 8 ruffians came along bellowing _______ and waving a red flag on a stick and tried to force an entrance into the garden about 7am. Mac and Lefevre stood guard and wouldn’t let them pass and after a while they went on.
There was not a Japanese from the racecourse to the boat that was not armed with some sort of club, bamboo or even an iron bar as if they expected to be attacked any moment. Some of them looked rather fierce as they were getting rather hungry there being no food in the town of any description.
Maurice caught sight of me from the Australia and yelled across from boat to boat so I knew he was OK. Isn’t it a luck that all of us came through without a scratch?
I cannot stop at this time to tell you all the people who were killed but quite a number of foreigners I am sorry to say have lost their lives, among them being poor old Jock Latson and James Patterson. Both went down with their office buildings. There are many more I could name but I think I have given you quite a dose for this time and there are several other things I want to mention before I close.
The food we had on the boat during the four days from Sunday to Wednesday was perfectly wonderful considering the unexpected number who had to be catered for on the open of the business. It being a cargo boat they allowed us practically the run of the ship. I used the 3rd officer’s brush and comb and washed my clothes in the Chief Engineers cabin and bathed in the cabin adjoining the captain’s suite!! (By the way we had no captain as he had come ashore just before the earthquake to get his clearance papers and was killed by falling debris. It was awful ______ _______ as it was his first trip to Japan). I went to dinner last night [Sep 8] at the Oriental Hotel here at Kobe with the 3rd officer referred to above.
At present I am staying with the Libeauds who are awfully nice to me and are giving me a temporary home until I can find some place with the rest of the family. Frank, Dad, Catto and uncle [likely Bill Cranch. Wife Gertrude, Sydney’s sister, is believed to be the aunt who left for England with Maurice. See next paragraph] are staying in a temporary flat over the S and F ______ but they all came up to the Libeaud’s for meals with the exception of Frank of whom we as usual see nothing except when he comes “home” to roost.
Maurice and auntie you will already have learned have come home to England. They did not even wait to see us at Kobe, not even to see if any of us were alive. However, perk up, it is just as well as heaps of the [expats?] are leaving as soon as possible, some for Shanghai and some for home.
Mr Fish has been awfully good. He had charge of the outfitting of the I.G.E. staff and so I came off very well. He even insisted on a white lace afternoon frock which has since proved very useful when having dinner at the hotel in town. We see quite a lot of each other these days, in fact have done for the past six weeks and I think he is very fond of me. Anything else is quite indefinite as I am not quite sure of myself yet and also for other reasons.
Well, mother dear, you will not worry unduly about us as it is imperative that the three of us stay here for awhile to pick ourselves up after the bump, and perhaps next year I shall be in a better position to take the long trip home than I am now, at least I sincerely hope so as the outlook seems…[page lost].
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