The Great Earthquake of Kanto

    On September 1st, 1923 one of the worst earthquakes in recent history hit the Kanto plain and destroyed Tokyo, Yokohama and all surrounding areas. The epicenter was placed in Sagami Bay, just southwest of Tokyo Bay. Destruction ranged from far up into the Hakone mountains, home to popular tourist resorts, to the busy shipping lanes of Yokohama Bay, north to the city of Tokyo.

• The quake was later estimated to have had a magnitude of  8.4 on the Richter Scale, making it one of the strongest quakes to hit near a heavily populated area, with it claiming the lives of 140,000 people.

• The damage and the number of fatalities were greatly amplified due to fires which broke out in numerous urban locations.
• Quake hit just before noon, so shops and resterants across Tokyo and other urban centers had gas lines open and with small fires catering to the lunchtime rush.  
• These fires spread rapidly due to high winds from a nearby typoon off the coast of  Northern Japan, coupled with the light wood and paper construction of Japanese buildings prevalent at the time.
• This caused massive firestorms to engulf the cities, destroying the majority of all buildings

• The single greatest loss of life occurred when  a gigantic fire whirl was produced by the ensuing blaze that killed 38,000 people in fifteen minutes in the Hifukusho-Ato region of Tokyo.

• As the earthquake had caused water mains to break, putting out the fires took nearly two full days and most of the cities were destroyed.

Aftermath of the Earthquake

On September 2, 1923 the Japanese government proclaimed the state of emergency.  Communication between the disaster area and the rest of Japan and the world was completely cut off.   In the first days and weeks after the earthquake, posted signs as shown on the print by Saiten Tamura (below) were the only way to inform the citizens and organize the rescue efforts.

                                                                                                                     

• The news of the disaster was first transmitted by ships anchored in the Yokohama and Tokyo bay area. When first reports of the tragedy arrived in the capitals outside Japan, immediate relief efforts were launched by the United States and other countri

Uprising and Killings of Korean Citizens

• To the deaths caused by collapsing buildings, tsunami and fire we must also add the organized killings in the aftermath of the quake by Japanese civilians, police and the military, of local Koreans, and political activists.  This all occured in  a wave of violence that began on September 1 and went on for many days

• These killings were fueled by rumors that Koreans resident in the Kanto area had risen up, and were carrying out acts of arson, rape and the poisoning of wells. The government's response to these rumors, at least initially, was to facilitate their spread, to organize and in some instances to arm local vigilante groups, and to instruct them to take whatever measures were necessary to protect their communities.

• While there are instances in which citizens and the police appear to have limited their actions to incarcerating Koreans, in many instances those people who could be identified as Korean, or merely suspected of being Korean, were murdered. The police would later estimate that some 231 Koreans had been killed in this manner, although most scholars place the total at somewhere between 6000 and 8000 people killed.

• Later, in response to the initial panic, 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.

• The chief of police 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

• After the rescue operations had set in and after the debris had been removed, rebuilding began - first at a very slow pace. But from 1926 on, the rebuilding took a breath-taking speed and by 1932 Tokyo and Yokohama were modern, vibrating cities. In 1932 the population of the Tokyo prefecture had risen to 6 million from 3.7 million in 1920.

Testimony of Mon Mun Shun

A resident Korean in Toyko at the time of the quake gave a testimony to the hidious crimes she witnessed Sept. 1 of 1923.  She and her younger sister were at their home when quake struck. They took shelter at their uncle's house after the earthquake, when several Japanese rushed into the house with Japanese swords and fire hooks with their hands, saying "Wipe out Koreans! They have thrown poison into the wells around and put fire to houses!"

             “I was scared of these Japanese rather than by the earthquake,” said Mun who survived thanks to the explanations given by their landlord, who said, “Koreans here did not do anything bad. They have been together with me since yesterday.”

            The next day, a friend of their father’s, who had gone out to make a protest against the cruel acts done by Japanese to Korean, was killed and his cut head pierced through with something like a bamboo spear was carried by a group of Japanese in front of her own eyes.   “The mental anguish caused by the sight at the time was so nightmarish to my mother that she is not cured of it even today.” said Mun’s daughter, “she often rushes out into the street at midnight and wander about with fear.”

Opportunistic Killings of Political Activist

• The post-quake violence also took the lives of many labor and political activists. In what became known as the Amakasu Incident, a military police officer and troops under his command arrested and murdered Osugi Sakae, perhaps the nation's most visible political activist and outspoken anarchist, his companion and fellow activist Itō , and their young nephew. Elsewhere in the city, more than a dozen labor leaders were "disappeared" in the Kameido Incident, it was later learned that the labor activists had been incarcerated buy the police, and subsequently killed by troops.

•  Some of those involved in the violence were eventually arrested and tried, but not many. The police arrested between 400 and 600 on charges associated with vigilante violence. Of those prosecuted, only a handful served time in prison.

The Kanto Earthquake and Japanese Prints

The Shin Hanga, publisher of the Watanabe print shop, and his artisans and affiliated artists had to start again from scratch. In the beginning they revitalized the business by producing small-sized cards and calendars. A wave of support from his clients outside Japan, mainly from North America and Europe, helped Watanabe and his circle to recover fast from the disaster. Many of the more popular print designs were redesigned and recarved.

Japanese prints depicting the devastations and the scenes immediately after the disaster are rare.  Unichi Hiratsuka began the series "Scenes after the Tokyo Earthquake."  Twelve prints were created from 1923 to 1926. And while the early prints of the series showed the devastations, the later designs showed the reconstruction works.

• Prints showing the reconstruction of the city after the earthquake are more frequent. Kishio Koizumi designed and carved the series "One Hundred Views of Great Tokyo" from 1928 to 1932.  It is an impressive document of the enormous reconstruction work.

• From 1929 to 1937 the series "One Hundred Views of New Toykyo was published. It was a collaborative work by the orignal Watanabe artists.  The series shows views of the rebuilt city and reflects the resilient spirit of Tokyo's citizens.