The Great Kantō earthquake (関東大震災 Kantō daishinsai?) struck the Kantō plain on the Japanese main island of Honshū at 11:58:44 am JST (2:58:44 UTC) on Saturday, September 1, 1923. Varied accounts hold that the duration of the earthquake was between 4 and 10 minutes.[2] This is the deadliest earthquake in Japanese history, and at the time was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in the region. The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake later surpassed that record.
The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.9 on the Moment magnitude scale(Mw),[3] with its focus deep beneath Izu Ōshima Island in the Sagami Bay. The cause was a massive rupture of the Sagami Trough, due the exertion of enormous energy from the Philippine Sea Plate subducting under the Okhotsk Plate.
Outline
This earthquake devastated Tokyo, the port city of Yokohama, surrounding prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, and Shizuoka, and caused widespread damage throughout the Kantō region.[4] The power was so great that in Kamakura, over 60 kilometres (37 mi) from the epicenter, it moved a Great Buddha statue weighing about 93 short tons (84,000 kg) almost two feet.[5][6]
Casualty estimates range from about 142,800 deaths, including approximately 40,000 who went missing and were presumed dead. The damage from this natural disaster was the greatest sustained by Prewar Japan. In 1960, the government of Japan declared September 1, the anniversary of the quake, as an annual “Disaster Prevention Day.”
According to the Japanese construction company Kajima Kobori Research’s conclusive report of September 2004, there were 105,385 confirmed deaths in the 1923 quake.[7][8]
Damage and Death
Because the earthquake struck at lunchtime when many people were cooking meals over fire, many people died as a result of many large fires that broke out. Some fires developed into firestorms that swept across cities. Many people died when their feet became stuck in melting tarmac. The single greatest loss of life was caused by a firestorm-induced fire whirl that engulfed open space at the Rikugun Honjo Hifukusho (formerly the Army Clothing Depot) in downtown Tokyo, where about 38,000 people were incinerated after taking shelter there following the earthquake. The earthquake broke water mains all over the city, and putting out the fires took nearly two full days until late in the morning of September 3. The fires were the biggest causes of death.
A strong typhoon struck Tokyo Bay at about the same time as the earthquake. Some scientists, including C.F. Brooks of the United States Weather Bureau, suggested that the opposing energy exerted by a sudden decrease of atmospheric pressure coupled with a sudden increase of sea pressure by a storm surge on an already-stressed earthquake fault, known as the Sagami Trough, may have triggered the earthquake. Winds from the typhoon caused fires off the coast of Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture to spread rapidly.
The Emperor and Empress were staying at Nikko when the earthquake struck Tokyo and were never in any danger.[10]
Many homes were buried or swept away by landslides in the mountainous and hilly coastal areas in western Kanagawa Prefecture, killing about 800 people. A collapsing mountainside in the village of Nebukawa, west of Odawara, pushed the entire village and a passenger train carrying over 100 passengers along with the railway station into the sea.
A tsunami with waves up to 10 metres (33 ft) high struck the coast of Sagami Bay, Boso Peninsula, Izu Islands and the east coast of Izu Peninsula within minutes. The tsunami killed many, including about 100 people 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. Evacuees were transported by ship from Kanto to as far as Kobe in Kansai.[11] The damage is estimated to have exceeded USD$1 billion (or about $13,641 billion today).[citation needed] There were 57 aftershocks. Altogether the earthquake and typhoon killed an estimated 99,300 people, and another 43,500 went missing.[12]
Post Earthquake Massacre of Koreans and other Ethnic MinoritiesSee also: Anti-Korean sentiment and Well poisoning
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 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 brutal mobs occurred in urban Tokyo and Yokohama, fueled by rumors of rebellion and sabotage.[13] 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 large quake, all seemed to confirm the rumors of the panic-stricken survivors who were living amidst 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-jū-sen) and がぎぐげご (gagigugego) were used as a shibboleth. 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. About 700 Chinese, mostly from Wenzhou, were killed.[14] A monument commemorating this was built in 1993 in Wenzhou.[15]
In response, the Japanese Army and the police conducted operations to protect Koreans.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] 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 had been poisoning wells.[citation needed] In some towns, even police stations into which Korean people had escaped were attacked by mobs, whereas in other neighbourhoods residents took steps to protect them.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
Ethnic Koreans were persecuted after the 1923 Kanto Earthquake.
The total death toll from these disturbances is uncertain. According to the investigation by the Home Ministry, confirmed victims of vigilante violence were: 231 Koreans killed, 43 injured; 3 Chinese killed; 59 Japanese killed, 43 injured.[citation needed] In 2010, a study of Japanese childhood education reported that Japanese schoolchildren were often taught that contemporary Japanese official estimates were between 2,333 to 2,613 people killed in the massacre, and also taught that some independent newspapers claimed the numbers were as high as 6,600.[16] 362 Japanese civilians were eventually charged for murder, attempted murder, manslaughter and assault. However, 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.
All of those charged with murder 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. On top of this violence, socialists like Hirasawa Keishichi, anarchists like Sakae Osugi and Noe Ito, and the Chinese communal leader, Ou Kiten, were abducted and killed by members of the police, who took advantage of the turmoil to liquidate perceived enemies of the state amidst claims that radicals intended to use the crisis as an opportunity to overthrow the Japanese government.[17]
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 not to be misled by rumors in the event of a large earthquake.
[Source: Wikipedia]