NFPA Journal - November/December 2013 - (Page 72)
>>LOOKING BACK
The Big One
The 1923 Kanto earthquake was the deadliest in Japan's history
The greaT kanTo earThquake that rocked Japan on
September 1, 1923, was devastating in its own right, with an
immense initial shock followed by hundreds of aftershocks, but
the fires that erupted in its wake provided some of the event's
most indelible images.
The quake struck just as the citizens of Tokyo and Yokohama
were preparing lunch, many over coal or charcoal cooking
stoves. Within minutes of the first shock, fires erupted throughout the cities. "Yokohama, the city of almost half a million
souls, had become a vast plain of fire, of red, devouring sheets
of flame...Here and there a remnant of a building, a few shattered walls, stood up like rocks above the expanse of flame,
unrecognizable," wrote Henry W. Kinney, editor of Trans-Pacific
magazine. "It was as if the very earth were now burning."
The quake's first shock hit at 11:58 a.m., emanating from a
seismic fault six miles (9.6 kilometers) beneath the floor of
Sagami Bay, 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Tokyo, according
to Smithsonian.com. Hardest hit was Yokohama, 17 miles
(27.3 kilometers) southwest of Tokyo, where the quake
destroyed "nearly every building" on the city's unstable ground.
In Yokohama, observers told of the first rumbling jar that
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NFPA JOURNAL NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013
occurred without warning and of buildings that withstood the
violent shaking for as long as half a minute; walls bulged and
sagged as slabs of plaster fell from ceilings. Then many of
those buildings suddenly disintegrated in great clouds of dust.
Moments later, fires began to flicker and grow in the rubble.
The shaking was followed by a tsunami 40 feet (12 meters) high.
More than 800 aftershocks hit the region over the next five days.
Buildings suddenly disintegrated in great
clouds of dust. Moments later, fires began
to flicker and grow in the rubble.
Although the Kanto earthquake was of the same magnitude
as the 1906 San Francisco earthquake-7.9 on the moment
magnitude scale, which was replaced by the Richter scale in the
1970s-the damage it caused was far greater. An estimated
142,000 people died, almost 140,000 more than in San Francisco. Approximately 45 percent of Tokyo and 80 percent of
Yokohama were destroyed. It was the deadliest earthquake in
Japan's history.
-Kathleen Robinson
Photographs: AP/Wide World
http://www.Smithsonian.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - November/December 2013
Contents
NFPA Journal - November/December 2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2024spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2023winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2023fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2023summer
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2023spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2022winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2022fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2022summer
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2022spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2021winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2021fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2021summer
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2021spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20201112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20200910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20200708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20200506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20200304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20200102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20191112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20190910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20190708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20190506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20190304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20190102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20181112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20180910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20180708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20180506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20180304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20180102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20171112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20170910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20170708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20170506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20170304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20170102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20161112
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20160910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20160708
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20151112
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20150708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20150506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20150304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_201501
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20140910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20140708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20140506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20140304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20140102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20131112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20130910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20130708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20130506
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20130102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20121112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20120910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20120708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20120506
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