NFPA Journal - Spring 2023 - 80

Looking Back
FIRE INCIDENTS AND
OTHER NOTABLE EVENTS
FROM SAFETY HISTORY
A view of earthquake and
fire damage in Tokyo's Kanda
District. It is estimated that
two-thirds of the structures in
the city were destroyed.
the shore it was seen that
a terrible earthquake was
taking place, buildings were
collapsing in all directions
and in a few minutes nothing
could be seen for clouds
of dust. When these cleared
away fire could be seen starting
in many directions and
in half an hour the whole
city was in flames. "
What the captain observed
was the development of an
immense firestorm, caused in
part by the tens of thousands
of cooking fires that had
been lit around the city in
preparation for the midday
TRAGEDY ON
TRAGEDY
THE GREAT KANTO
EARTHQUAKE OF 1923
By Scott Sutherland
T
his year marks the 100th
anniversary of one of the worst
disasters to strike Japan-one
that began as a natural disaster,
triggered a manmade calamity,
and resulted in a final chapter that produced a
brutal spasm of nationalistic violence.
Moments before noon on September 1, 1923,
a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck Japan, concentrating
most of its force on Tokyo and the
surrounding areas. Landslides swept entire villages
into the sea, while other settlements were
erased by a tsunami as much as 33 feet (10
meters) high. The captain of a ship anchored in
Yokohama's inner harbor recounted the event
in his log: " [The] ship commenced to tremble
and vibrate violently and on looking towards
80 | NFPA JOURNAL * SPRING 2023
meal. The flames were fanned by high winds in Tokyo Bay generated by
a nearby typhoon. The growing fires killed many people trapped in the
rubble of homes and businesses, but even those who managed to avoid the
debris were in grave danger. Observers recounted stories of fleeing people
being overrun by fire when their feet became stuck in melting asphalt.
An estimated 40,000 people sought shelter in a large open area in Tokyo's
Honjo district, hoping to avoid the hazard of building-to-building ignition.
Such was the intensity of the fire, however, that cyclones of superheated
air and flames descended on the area, killing an estimated 38,000. In the
city's Yoshiwara district, more than 600 people who had taken shelter in a
walled enclosure met a similar fate. In total, the Great Kanto Earthquake
and ensuing fires killed an estimated 143,000 people and destroyed twothirds
of the structures in Tokyo. Nearly 2 million were left homeless.
But the carnage wasn't over. A simmering Korean independence movement-Japan
had annexed Korea in 1910 and crushed a resistance effort
in 1919-sparked rumors that ethnic Koreans were poisoning wells on
the heels of the disaster and were responsible for acts of arson and robbery.
The rumors were reported as fact, and a society already profoundly
stressed found a sudden and convenient scapegoat. A brief but intense
period of ethnic violence ensued, led by vigilante mobs. Koreans were
murdered en masse, as were Chinese residents and ethnic Japanese who
had the misfortune to speak certain regional dialects. Some estimates
put the number of people killed in the days following the earthquake
at 10,000 or more-a tragic coda to an event that, by any measure, was
already tragic enough.
THE NFPA LIBRARY AND ARCHIVE holds a rich collection of books, reports, and photographs that
document important moments in fire history. To provide better electronic access for researchers and
to preserve our unique archival holdings, work has begun to digitize the files of the Fire Record Department,
the original NFPA department responsible for collecting and analyzing information and compiling
statistics about key fires and other events. The incidents featured in " Looking Back " are drawn from this
collection and will eventually be part of NFPA's online archive. For information, visit nfpa.org/library.
HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

http://www.nfpa.org/library

NFPA Journal - Spring 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - Spring 2023