Great Kanto earthquake
The Great Kanto earthquake (関東大震災 kantō daishinsai) of September 1, 1923, struck at 11:58 in the morning the Kanto plain on the Japanese main island Honshu. The quake was recorded at a magnitude of 7.9 on the Richter scale, and destroyed the Japanese port city of Yokohama and large parts of neighboring Tokyo.More than 140,000 lives were lost in the catastrophe. Most of the fatalies were caused by 88 fires which broke out separately and spread rapidly due to high winds. As the earthquake had caused water mains to break, putting out the fires took nearly two full days. Along with many lost lives, many homes were destroyed, leaving an estimated 1.9 million homeless. The damage is estimated to exceed one billion U.S. dollars at the time of the earthquake.
The chaos created by the earthquake led to an outbreak of violence. Japanese authorities actively spread rumours that such problem groups as the Koreans, the Chinese, and socialists were rioting, inciting the population to organise pogroms against them. Thousands of Koreans, Chinese and socialists were killed, by civilians as well as by the police force and the military.
In 1960, September 1st was designated as Disaster Prevention Day to commemorate the earthquake and remind people of the importance of preparation. Tokyo is located on a fault line which, on average, has suffered from major earthquakes once every 70 years.
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