The 1923 earthquake and firestorms that claimed 100,000+ lives
A powerful earthquake in Sept. 1923 caused a destructive tsunami and widespread fires that destroyed much of Tokyo
A calamitous disaster more than a century ago still sends reverberations through Japanese society today.
The nation observes Disaster Preparedness Day on the first day of September in commemoration of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.
More than 100,000 people reportedly died in the earthquake and subsequent tsunami and firestorms that followed.
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A fault line ruptured southwest of Tokyo just before lunchtime on Sept. 1, 1923, unleashing a powerful earthquake across Japan’s east coast. Today’s estimates place the initial earthquake as a magnitude 8.0, with several additional intense tremors in the hours that followed.
Earthquakes in populous areas are bad enough, especially in the days before adequate engineering to reinforce homes and businesses from the ground shifting and swaying beneath them.
But the danger was far from over once the ground stopped rattling. Destructive tsunami waves crashed ashore in nearby communities, reaching as much as seven metres above ground level in the hardest-hit areas.
Fires broke out amid the destruction in Tokyo proper. Fanned by the gusty winds of a typhoon that reportedly tracked not far offshore, flames rapidly spread and destroyed vast swaths of the city within the first two days following the earthquake.
Modern estimates hold that more than 100,000 people died in the catastrophe, with fires accounting for almost all of the casualties.
Japan refused to forget the horrific disaster, eventually turning the earthquake’s anniversary into a day of education and preparedness. Given that Japan is one of the most disaster-prone places on Earth, the country began observing Disaster Prevention Day in 1960 to ensure citizens are ready for everything from typhoons to volcanic eruptions.