Catastrophe

Disaster, out of the earth, shook the foundations and shattered the superstructure of Hondo, principal island of Japan. Tokyo and Yokohama and all cities for 400 miles along the East coast were reported to be in ruins. The magnitude of the disaster was the entire burden of the reports. The chief news was that direct communication with Japan was ended. Apparently the cables were snapped.

No official reports were received. From Shanghai came indirect information of the disaster, and disaster was the one sure truth. A quake of unparalleled severity, fire, tidal waves, famine, explosives, hundreds of thousands of houses wrecked, hundreds of thousands of people killed--fact and fiction were woven in a horrible fabric of destruction and death.

Japan has been a land of earthquakes from time immemorial. There are records of great earth disturbances in A.D. 684, 869, 1361, 1498, 1596, 1707, 1792, 1846, 1854, 1896. Minor tremors are a daily occurance. It is estimated that there are 1,500 earth tremors a year. This is the reason for the light, bamboo construction of most Japanese buildings.

There are definite earthquake zones on the surface of the earth following definite rift lines. They occur where mountain-making is in progress. Large segments of the earth in adjusting themselves in equilibrium exert tremendous pressure. By this process mountains are raised in the course of a few million years, a comparatively short time geologically speaking. From time to time under the huge stresses which fold and warp rocks, the strain becomes too great in the earth's crust, something gives way and the whole earth shakes. No exact, scientific explanation of these movements has been reached. But it is known that the present is one of the greatest mountain making periods in the earth's history.

When the great San Francisco earthquake and fire took place on April 18, 1906, the Japanese Red Cross sent $100,000 for relief. The loss of life at San Francisco was only about 500, and the earthquake was slight as compared with that in Japan. The chief damage was caused by the fire which followed. For several days great numbers of people had no shelter; cooking was done in the streets to avert fire danger, since the water supply had been cut off. A few looters, rifling wrecked houses and dead bodies were shot; food, and even more, water, was extremely scarce.

These scenes are probably being re-enacted now on a larger scale in Japan. The American Red Cross began a relief fund for the Japanese with a contribution of $100,000. Six American destroyers of the Asiatic Fleet were despatched to the devastated region with food and clothing, and Admiral Anderson offered the services of the entire Asiatic Fleet. The American Consul at Kobe sent the Shipping. Board Steamer West Orowa to Yokohama with relief supplies. Offers of relief came from all parts of the world.