Chapter 746: The Great Kanto Earthquake!

They have nowhere to run at all, only death awaits them!

More than 24,000 people in Yokohama Park who tried to escape the fire were surrounded by flames and burned alive.

Even the lake in the park was scorched hot by the fire, and those who jumped into the lake were scalded to death by the hot water. The Great Fire turned the Kanto region of Japan into a living hell and was full of murderous intent everywhere.

Incredibly, even the people on the beach could not save their lives.

Thousands of victims fled to the beach and jumped into the sea, grabbing some floating objects and the edge of the boat. Fire and water are incompatible, and it seems natural to jump into the sea to avoid the flames.

However, this time it became a different story entirely.

A few hours later, an explosion occurred at an oil depot near the beach, and more than 100,000 tons of oil were poured into Yokohama Bay. The fire ignited the oil on the surface of the water, and Yokohama Bay became a veritable sea of fire.

More than 3,000 people who had taken refuge in the sea were killed by the fire. If you can't hide from the fire demon in the water, there is almost nowhere to hide in the entire Kanto region. In Yokohama City, more than 60,000 houses were destroyed by fire

The epicenter of the earthquake was at the bottom of Xiangmo Bay, causing another large-scale tsunami. As a result of a strong earthquake, the seabed crust has moved on a large scale, and the seabed near the Big Island has moved up to 400 meters vertically and 4 meters to the north. The seabed near Tateyama was uplifted and moved 3 meters to the southeast. Such violent movements of the earth's crust at the bottom of the sea caused the sea to swell with huge waves that violently hit the coast. Earthquakes and fires were followed by large-scale tsunamis.

In order to escape the earthquake and fire, the people who were lucky enough to escape began to look for a place where the building could not be pressed down after the collapse and the fire could not burn. The only places that can meet both requirements are beaches, ports and marinas. As a result, frightened people flocked to the beaches, docks, and ports in Tokyo, Yokohama, and other places.

But the tsunami caused by the earthquake sent huge waves and swooped down on the ports, docks and beaches along the coast of Xiangmo Bay like a demonic frenzy — places where the victims thought they were safe. The sea suddenly lost the gentleness and romance of the literati's writings, and became hideous and terrifying.

When the evacuees saw the huge waves more than 10 meters high rushing in the sky, they rushed inland and trampled to death.

In fact, it is difficult to escape from the tiger's mouth of the tsunami, because the huge waves rush to the coast at a speed of 750 kilometers per hour, so the people on the shore are instantly swallowed by the big waves, or swept into the depths of the ocean, or thrown into the air by the big waves, and some are thrown to land by the huge waves.

The various ships anchored in the ports and docks were either crushed and sunk by the fierce waves, or they were sunk by the impact of the tsunami. After the tsunami receded, it swept away all the wrecked ships.

A large fishing boat was once moored in the port of Yokohama, and the huge waves broke it to pieces, leaving no one on board alive. Ports in Tokyo and Yokohama, dock facilities, and houses destroyed in the earthquake were also looted by the huge waves of the tsunami.

After the violent sea calmed down, the beaches of Tokyo and other places turned into large garbage dumps, full of roofs of wooden houses, bed boards, doors and windows, fragments of boats, and human corpses. Something similar floats on the surface of the sea. But these remnants are only a small part of what is left of the fury of the sea, and it has not had time to recede with the tide, and most of it has been swallowed up by the sea and has long since disappeared.

The tsunami caused by the earthquake sank more than 8,000 ships of all kinds and paralyzed all large and small ports and wharves in Tokyo, Yokohama, Yokosuka, and Chiba. These places have experienced a real catastrophe.

Among the sunken ships was the Japanese warships that had gathered in Tokyo Bay

This is a disaster for Japan, and even more so for the Japanese Navy. Those sunken ships, they are not afraid to fight at sea with the enemy's fleet, but in the face of nature, they seem so small...,

At the Akasaka Palace in Tokyo, the 22-year-old Regent Hirohito held a grand state banquet to entertain envoys from various countries.

As the guests and hosts were rejoicing, a violent, sudden tremor came from the depths of the earth; Amid the shaking earth, the clanging of chopsticks, and the stunned guests, Hirohito staggered to the garden outside the hall, regardless of etiquette. He saw a picture of a landslide.

The newly completed 12-story Tokyo Tower is cut in two like matchsticks. Countless tall buildings crumbled in an instant. Tokyo suddenly seemed low and empty, with only the noisy crowds, boiling sounds, and the rising firelight, connecting the isolated Akasaka Palace with the devastated Japan!

In the courtyard of the palace with constant aftershocks, Hirohito's expression was blank and stunned

As the first earthquake-resistant building in Japan's history, on this day, Akasaka Rikyu Palace suffered only minor damage; A few hundred miles away in the small town of Nikko, the emperor and empress were also unharmed.

However, for the young crown prince, the disaster, known as the "Great Kanto Earthquake", was like a lingering nightmare.

According to the old legend, the first day of the month is the day of the great evil, just like the 13th and Friday in the West.

Until 11:57, when the "Queen" whistled again, Cocriel, an American scholar and professor at the University of Colorado, was still waving frequently on the deck; And Joan, who came to see off relatives and friends. Jensen also remembers waving her handkerchief on the docks. Everything is still calm, calm, and cheerful.

Just a minute later, Cokril witnessed a horrible, hallucinatory sight: the harbor had risen sharply, and the dock had twisted and deformed like dough. He later recalled with horror:

"At first, we were confused. Later, someone shouted 'earthquake', 'earthquake', and we knew what had happened. In the distance, the sky over the city is covered with dust and fog."

Compared to Cokerill, Joan. Jensen was even more impressed. Later, she wrote in Lookout magazine: "The power from the ground is so great that we are thrown into the sky. After colliding with each other like the wooden pillars in the Nine Pillars play, we fell into the water, and the dock sank at both ends, and half of the seawall collapsed. ”

Not just docks, docks, and seawalls? Almost at the same moment, a Western tourist witnessed a sensational scene: "A large forest rushed down the Danze Mountains almost in a panning speed, about sixty miles faster than a train!" "After crossing a village and a railway, it carried hundreds of villagers and countless boulders into the sea; Moments later, "several square miles of water turned blood-red."

At 11:58, the moment the earthquake came, a train bound for Mazuru with more than 200 people slowly drove into Negawafu Station. Barely had time to stop, and the overwhelming mudslide came in. After easily swallowing the train, the mudslide slowly flowed towards Tokyo Bay, and at the same time disappeared several villages in Negawa Prefecture.

At this moment, more than 8,000 ships, including a large number of warships, were sunk in an instant, from the port of Yokohama and Tokyo Bay to the vast desert of the Sea of Japan.

In the Kanto Plain, which is densely populated with towns, all the land rises and falls like the waves of the sea, and the hills and mountains twist sharply.

In addition to the collapse of more than 100,000 houses, the earthquake with a magnitude of 8.3 on the Richter scale and the epicenter in Sagami Bay, 90 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, stunned scientists at the Central Meteorological Observatory and Tokyo Imperial University: the seismographs first trembled wildly, and then all the pointers were shaken away; Except for one imported instrument that can barely monitor, Japan cannot find another intact seismograph.

Compared with the more than 10,000 people who died instantly, Joan. Jensen was lucky. After falling into the water and suffering a minor injury, she caught the low tide. …,

She barely stood up in the swaying water, and slowly waded onto land.

In front of her frightened, bewildered gaze were countless towns and villages in ruins, millions of earthquake victims who had no time to cry and were like headless flies.

A reporter for the Tokyo Chronicle wrote: "Some people ran out into the streets, and although they escaped from the demons, they encountered fire demons. They fell to the ground, covered in hot blood blisters. They may be lucky compared to those who have been burned to the ground. How much life does that pile, piece by piece of ash contain? Nobody knows."

Thousands of people were charred in the fire. The journalist saw with his own eyes that "hundreds of escapees were burned to death there" along the canal. From here, the smell of corpses lingered for a long time, "you can smell it dozens of miles away".

In Tokyo and Yokohama, where aftershocks continued, the fires became the masters of countless neighborhoods.

At about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the fire swept through the whole of Yokohama. Home to 500,000 citizens, this sleepless port, known as "a paradise for foreigners" and "full of exoticism and adventure", has gradually become a melting pot!

Professor Cokerier saw thousands of survivors desperately jumping into the sea, shouting for help as they swam away from the sweltering heat

More Japanese people also remembered the old legend:

In the depths of the Sea of Japan, there is a huge catfish; If the sun goddess is dissatisfied with the ruler of the earth, the catfish will turn over and an earthquake will erupt. Only if the emperor immediately abdicates the throne will the disaster stop and the aftershocks and fires will pass.

When a major earthquake strikes, almost all governments respond naturally to informing the world of the disaster and appealing to the international community for assistance...... The Japanese, however, did everything possible to prevent the spread of information. They interfere with the few radio stations that are still working.

Until they couldn't hide the truth, they denied that anything unusual had happened

And it's not just blocking the news!

Pan Pacific Magazine Editor Henry Brown. Kinney published an earthquake diary. This notebook completely shows the incompetence, indifference, and brutality of the officials, and the passivity, numbness, despair, and resignation of the Japanese people. It is a testimony to the expression of the earthquake in Japan in 123.

He saw a devastated Kanto Plain, almost a living hell: most of the factories had been razed to the ground, and among the rubble and ruins, stumps and broken arms were everywhere; In the once prosperous town of Kawasaki, not a single surviving house is in sight; And the survivors scattered near the ruined homes are also dead and dull expressions.

It's over, it's over, Japan is completely finished!