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Japan marks 100 years since Great Kanto Quake with disaster drills nationwide

  • The 1923 earthquake and ensuing blaze killed over 100,000 people, and destroyed nearly 300,000 homes
  • Drills simulated fictional tremor aftermath, and Koreans killed in a 1923 rampage after Great Kanto, amid poisoning rumours, were remembered

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Smoke rises over damaged buildings after an earthquake in Tokyo on September 1, 1923.One hundred years later, Japan marked the centennial of the horrific Great Kanto Quake. Photo: AP
Associated Press
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida staged a televised disaster drill on Friday based on a fictional earthquake in the Tokyo region, as his country marked the centennial of the real-life 1923 Great Kanto Quake that killed more than 100,000 people.

The 7.9-magnitude earthquake that struck the Sagamihara area, southwest of Tokyo, on September 1, 1923, just before noon, triggered a widespread inferno, causing most of the victims to perish in the fire.

The blaze destroyed nearly 300,000 Japanese paper-and-wood homes as the country suffered major social and economic damage just as it was seeking to modernise.

In the aftermath, thousands of ethnic Koreans were killed as police and others responded to baseless rumours that Koreans were poisoning wells. The rampage has never fully been acknowledged by the government.

Japanese officials are worried another devastating earthquake could happen again. On Friday, the drill simulated the aftermath of a fictional 7.3-magnitude trembler in central Tokyo at 7am.

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (3rd L) during a disaster prevention drill at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo on Friday. Photo: AFP
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (3rd L) during a disaster prevention drill at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo on Friday. Photo: AFP

Kishida and his cabinet ministers, wearing matching light-blue uniforms, walked to the prime minister’s office for an emergency response meeting to discuss initial measures with hypothetically hard-hit Sagamihara city, the 1923 epicentre.

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