Under the vigorous call of the Chinese government, the Chinese people of all walks of life have responded positively and shown a rare cohesion. The Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce immediately decided to "purchase 10,000 bales of flour and 3,000 bales of rice", and paid 6.11 million silver dollars in advance, with Gu Xinyi and Rong Zongjing purchasing flour and loading it on the ship, and Yu Qiaqing handling the customs declaration. China Merchants sent the "Xinming" steamer to deliver it free of charge. Because of their high efficiency, on September 3, the "Shinmei", loaded with the first relief supplies such as flour and rice, lifted anchor and sailed for Japan, which became the first international aid Japan received and the first international ships to arrive at the same time as the American warship.

Zhuang Dezhi, then chairman of the General Office of the Red Cross Society of China, and Niu Huilin, chief medical officer, personally led the medical rescue team and medicines and equipment to Tokyo, Japan on September 8 to participate in the disaster relief work. This is the first international medical rescue team to reach the disaster area in Japan.

In order to help the victims of the Japanese disaster, Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang initiated the establishment of the "National International Donation Conference of the Art Circle", and stars such as Yu Shuyan and Yang Xiaolou participated in the charity performance and raised 50,000 silver dollars for the relief of the Japanese disaster. The "Shanghai Lingjie Federation" also carried out a two-day charity performance on the "New Stage", sponsored by He Fenglin, Sheng Zhushu, Yu Qiaqing, Ye Chuling, Zhang Jiluan and others. The Shanghai Society for the Preservation of Paintings and Calligraphy raised funds for disaster relief in Japan through auctions. The Shanghai County Education Bureau and the Education Association initiated the establishment of the "Disaster Relief Association" to raise funds and materials for the Japanese disaster victims. On September 5, all walks of life in Beijing gathered in the Central Park "Laijin Yuxuan", and the Beijing Association of Banks donated 100,000 silver dollars to buy 30,000 stones of rice noodles. The Chinese Federation of the World Red Cross Society decided to allocate 50,000 yuan for disaster relief and sent representatives to Japan with food, clothing, and medicine. In Tianjin, Wang Chengbin, governor of Zhili Province, convened a meeting of Tianjin business people to discuss assistance to the disaster-stricken areas in Japan. The Tianjin Red Cross Society and the Tianjin Press Association have taken action to raise food and funds to support Japan. Guangzhou, Nanjing, and the three eastern provinces all donated large sums of food, goods, and money. At the inauguration ceremony of the "Disaster Relief Comrades Association" initiated by Duan Qirui, Ni Sichong, Zhou Xuexi, Jin Yunpeng, Cao Rui, Cao Rulin, Bao Guiqing and others attended and donated money, raising funds worth 100,000 yen on the spot, which were directly remitted to Japanese Prime Minister Gonbei Yamamoto the next day. In addition, Cao Kun, who served as the patrol envoy of Zhilu and Henan, personally donated 50,000 yuan, 30,000 yuan for relief of Japanese people, and 20,000 yuan for relief of overseas Chinese and students in Japan; Wu Peifu, the envoy of the two lakes, and Xiao Yaonan, the governor of Hubei Province, each donated 20,000 yuan; Han Jun, Governor of Jiangsu, Wang Chengbin, Governor of Zhili, He Fenglin, Envoy of Songhu Protector, Lu Tiaoyuan, Governor of Anhui Province, Lu Yongxiang, Governor of Zhejiang Province, and Zhang Zaiyang, Governor of Zhejiang Province, all donated 1,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan. The total amount of donations for these three items alone reached more than 440,000 yuan, according to the Shanghai "Declaration", the Tianjin "Ta Kung Pao" and the separately published announcement of the receipt of donations from Duan Qirui and others of the Disaster Relief Comrades Association. The Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, with Shanghai as the center, became the main force in this disaster relief, and many small and medium-sized towns, including Wenzhou, also set up relief groups for the Japanese disaster. Japanese steamers even went directly to Wenzhou, carrying charcoal, tobacco leaves, rapeseeds, fresh eggs and other materials, with a value of as high as 510,000 yuan. Wang Yiting, a Chinese businessman and painter who is also the leader of Buddhism in Shanghai, raised 6,000 stones of rice, more than 2,000 bags of flour and various urgently needed items to be shipped to Japan. The pure sense of morality and internationalism and humanitarianism displayed by the Chinese people during the earthquake in Japan were widely praised by all countries in the world for a while.

But what happened in Japan later greatly hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.

The day after the earthquake, martial law was declared nationwide, and the task of martial law in the affected areas was actually undertaken by local "youth self-police groups" at the beginning. On the same day, it was rumored in the disaster area that North Koreans took advantage of the chaos to set fires and poisoned wells. Therefore, from the afternoon of September 2, with the cooperation of the Japanese military and police, the "Youth Self-Police Group" used swords to carry out an extremely cold-blooded and brutal massacre of Korean settlements, and in the course of this massacre, the Japanese also targeted the Chinese. Statistics later showed that tens of thousands of Koreans were killed in the earthquake in Japan, while 716 Chinese were slaughtered, of whom 622 died on the spot, 11 were missing (some were found to have been killed later), and 83 were injured (some died of their injuries afterwards).

At that time, China's domestic newspapers and media reported on this, and the "Beihua Daily" downloaded:

“…… At that time, there were rumors in Tokyo and nearby counties that Koreans had thrown themselves on fire and poisoned them. So with all the strength of the military police, the Youth League, the citizens, and the villagers, the people of Dasuo, regardless of the old ** woman, wantonly killed them. The most terrible people are the Koreans and the Chinese people, and they are often mentioned together. Chinese As a result, he suffered a heinous catastrophe, and was deliberately killed and humiliated, and countless people were killed, and they were not ......treated as human beings."

"Zhejiang's Han Chaochu (Kobe High Business School), Shen Yuchuan (Gao Shi), Cai Jingde (Gao Gong), and Chen Mourning have proved that they are Chinese in many ways, and they are inevitably beaten to death, and they claim that the people should also be beaten."

"Jiang Jianwu, a native of Jiangsu, and six other people avoided the Omori Coast, Tokyo, Yokohama, and rented a Japanese house. After a few pleas, I was spared a death......"

"At that time, people were sad and angry, and most of them had lost their humanity, were cruel and poisonous, and trembled when they heard it. And because China excludes Japan, every time you meet Chinese, you are always susceptible to emotional impulses, and you are happy. Moreover, this is a good opportunity to sweep away Chinese laborers. ”

"When Wang Xitianjun came to our squadron to visit the squadron commanders, he was willing to contribute to the workers in escorting the Chinese. There is no one in the Chinese who does not know Wang Xitian. After that, one day, we walked to the guard of the tax office and heard that Wang Xitian had been beheaded by a Japanese official. The half-new bicycle he rode was occupied by the Japanese army as trophies......"

After the brutal massacre of Chinese and Koreans in Japan was reported, public opinion in China was greatly stimulated, and the upsurge of anti-earthquake aid to Japan turned into an angry wave of protest against the Japanese massacre of Chinese workers. The Chinese people have accused Japan of "the degeneration of benevolence, righteousness and morality." Our people are compassionate and compassionate, raising funds to help their urgency, and their ronins are killing and repaying grievances with virtue, nothing more than Si, we still have a breath, and we should quickly protest, punish the evil culprit, and compensate for losses. ”

Shanghai's "Morning Post" editorial: "Our country has expressed its deep sympathy for the earthquake in Japan and has done its best to provide relief, and our side can improve relations between the two countries and promote goodwill between the people...... Although we are sympathetic to the earthquake in Japan, we cannot but lodge a serious protest against the torture and killing. If the Japanese Government does not urgently seek a way to show mercy, it will be more difficult for Sino-Japanese relations to improve as a result. ”

After receiving the news, Lu Zongyu, Chinese minister to Japan, and Shi Luben, the new Chinese chargé d'affaires in Kobe, lodged a serious protest with the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After receiving the protest letter, the Japanese side first flatly denied it, and then immediately admitted that it was only a manslaughter: "When the earthquake occurred, disputes broke out everywhere in the Korean riots, and it was not uncommon for the Chinese to be killed or injured by mistake," "During the earthquake, the Koreans rioted, and the masses were angry and injured the Chinese by mistake," "The killing of such a large number of people is unbelievable from the point of view of common sense, and the reason for this is force majeure such as earthquakes and floods, which is really beyond the question." Chinese Foreign Minister Gu Weijun immediately sent a note to the Japanese Minister Plenipotentiary to China, Kenkichi Yoshizawa, lodged a serious protest against Japan's torture and killing of Chinese workers, demanded that the murderers be severely punished, that the atrocities be announced, that the refugees be compensated, and that similar incidents would not occur again. In the face of the surging wave of protests by the Chinese people, the Japanese Government, under pressure from the Chinese side, had no choice but to make resolutions such as "apologizing," "punishing the culprits," and "compensating," "arresting 22 military and police officers who committed the murders, sentencing nine to death for the first offenders, and sentencing the remaining Chinese workers to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 10 years to several months," and compensating the dead Chinese workers with a total of 600,000 yen.

The Great Kanto Earthquake is known as the "Great Earthquake That Influenced History" because it had a profound impact on the future history of Asia.

When China's aid to Japan was just emerging, the overjoyed Osaka Asahi Shimbun published an editorial entitled "Thank You for Your Sympathy for Good Neighbors": "...... The fact that the Chinese would come out with such enthusiasm to save the Japanese from the disaster is really something that the Japanese could not dream of, and all circles in Japan are greatly amazed by the swiftness of the Chinese's action this time, and thank the Chinese for their high righteousness. However, on October 6, the newspaper published an editorial entitled "The Impact of the Earthquake on China," reminding the Japanese government and people: "Half of the responsibility for whether or not the friendship that has grown in the hearts of the Chinese lies entirely with Japan." That is, to point out the bad impact of the massacre of Chinese in Japan on the relations between the two countries. Just as some people of insight in Japan have worried, "The earthquake disaster for the Chinese to actively help Japan was the best opportunity for Japan-China relations to warm up, but after the disaster, Japan-China relations have not improved, and since then they have become worse and more tense, and the Japanese Government should comprehensively, profoundly, and thoroughly reflect on this." ”,

As a result of the massacre of Koreans in Japan after the disaster, nearly 10,000 Koreans in Japan were killed, which aroused the general anger of the Koreans, and large-scale rallies and demonstrations broke out in various parts of northern Korea under the Chinese trusteeship, while armed insurrection broke out in southern Korea, which was still occupied by Japan, and then the Korean people began a vigorous "restoration movement", which eventually led to the Chinese government being forced by the pressure of the Korean people to ask China to help Korea restore its country, and after five years of trusteeship, despite the opposition of the Japanese side, The mandate over the northern part of Korea was ended ahead of schedule, and the "Republic of Korea" was established with Pyongyang as the capital. Since then, Korea has become "a bleeding wound on the body of the Japanese Empire," which caused Japan to devote a lot of energy to keep the southern part of Korea, and became one of the fuses for a full-scale war between China and Japan in the future.

The impact of the Great Kanto Earthquake on Japan was also enormous, with a total of 99,331 Japanese people killed, 43,476 unaccounted for, and 103733 injured in this unprecedented earthquake in Japanese history. 128266 houses were destroyed, 126233 were severely damaged, and 447128 were burned, and the fire caused after the earthquake burned about 38.3 square kilometers in Tokyo, 85 houses in Tokyo were destroyed, and about 9.5 square kilometers were burned in Yokohama, and 96 houses were razed to the ground. The earthquake also triggered a tsunami, with the maximum wave height exceeding 12 meters, and the tsunami swept away and washed away 868 houses, and the Japanese Navy suffered huge losses in the tsunami, including the two main battleships "Kaga" and "Tosa," the unfinished "Amagi" battlecruiser and "Naka" and many other warships, as well as a large number of merchant ships. Direct property damage is as high as $30 billion.

The Great Kanto Earthquake shattered Japan's 200-year-old Edo culture to ashes. As a result, the Japanese people felt that the country was small and that natural disasters were frequent, so they wanted to "open up living space" to the outside world. Since then, Japan has focused on the development of the eastern Siberian region, and Japan has successively established a large number of migrant villages in the eastern Siberian region it occupies, causing a large number of Japanese to migrate to Siberia, and the development of Siberian resources has injected new impetus into the development of Japan's economy, greatly enhancing Japan's military strength, and sharply expanding its aggressive ambitions. While trying to re-annex Korea, Japan remains as before, with its main focus on its neighbor China. After the Great Kanto Earthquake, in order to ease the domestic pressure and make up for the lack of domestic resources, Japan formulated a series of strategies to invade China, "if you want to conquer the world first, you must first conquer China" has become Japan's national policy, the Great Kanto Earthquake has put Japan in a difficult situation at the same time, but also accelerated the pace of Japan's invasion of China, and it was Japan's aggression against China that eventually led to the full-scale outbreak of World War II.

But at this time in Japan, neither the "quasi-emperor" Hirohito nor the peasants in the countryside realized that they were going to hell step by step.

Hirohito, who had finished processing the official documents, felt deeply tired, and he left the office and returned to his bedroom, where the court maid served him to lie down, but somehow, although Hirohito felt tired, he did not feel the slightest sleepiness, which made him feel a little uncomfortable.

At this time, Hirohito's mind somehow came to the battleships "Kaga" and "Tosa" that were grounded and sunk during the earthquake and tsunami.

For these two battleships, he had a special affection.

Before the expiration of the Third Anglo-Japanese Alliance, on March 3, 1921, more than half a year before the Washington Conference, Prince Hirohito, the 20-year-old Prince Regent of Japan, set out from Yokohama on the newly built battleship Kaga and escorted by the battleship Tosa, seeking to continue the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. This trip was also a preparation for his succession to the throne of the emperor after returning to Japan.

The "Imperial Summoning Ship", the "Kaga" and the "Tosa", which Hirohito took on on his first overseas visit, also had the meaning of showing strength to the British. It is a pity that less than two years after the return of these two new battleships, they died in the tsunami caused by the Great Kanto Earthquake.

Thinking back to the experience of visiting the sea by ship, Hirohito senses as if there were signs of something at that time.

Hirohito's fleet passed through Hong Kong, Singapore, Colombo, Aden, Suez, Port Said, Malta, Gibraltar and other places where he was warmly welcomed by the British colonial government and the Admiralty. ,

After 75 days of sailing, Hirohito's fleet arrived at the British military port of Portsmouth, where the British government welcomed Hirohito with a grand ceremony, the Prince of Wales went to the military port to greet him, and King George V personally went to Victoria Station in London to welcome Hirohito, and rode with him in a magnificent court carriage to Buckingham Palace. Hirohito spent three days at Buckingham Palace as a personal guest of King George V, and then spent eight days at Chesterfield House as a British state guest, where he attended various welcome ceremonies, visited places of interest, and held talks with British Prime Minister Lloyd-George to discuss the future of the "Anglo-Japanese alliance", but the results of the talks were not satisfactory.

The reason why it is difficult for the "Anglo-Japanese alliance" to continue is, first of all, that the United States bitterly hates the "Anglo-Japanese alliance," which is the pillar of Japan's expansion in Asia, and the dismantling of this alliance has always been a goal that the United States has diligently pursued. The main purpose of the United States in choosing China as a partner is mainly aimed at the Anglo-Japanese alliance. As early as 1907, the United States tried to form an alliance with China and Germany to counter the "Anglo-Japanese alliance", but it was secretly sabotaged by Japan. At the Paris Peace Conference after World War I, the failure of the United States to once again attempt to break up the "Anglo-Japanese alliance" made it feel all the more necessary to break down this important obstacle to competition with Japan in the Far East. Second, what is even more dangerous for the United States is that the "Anglo-Japanese Alliance" stipulates that the two countries "shall not declare war or hostility to each other," and the continued existence of the "Anglo-Japanese Alliance" is obviously aimed at the United States when its original targets, Tsarist Russia and the German Empire, no longer exist.

After the Paris Peace Conference, the United States began to exert more pressure on Britain to abolish the Anglo-Japanese alliance. During Hirohito's visit to Britain, U.S. Secretary of State Hughes warned the British ambassador to the United States, Geddes, that "the 'Anglo-Japanese alliance' will continue to fuel Japan's ambitions for further expansion in the Far East, and that any U.S. opposition to Japan's quest for new advantages will lead to conflict between the United States and Britain." Britain itself did not want Japan to take advantage of this alliance, which had long since lost its meaning to Britain, to continue to expand its influence in the Far East. Geddes even wrote in The Times that "the majority of Americans believe that the 'Anglo-Japanese alliance' emboldens Japan to attack and wantonly attack...... However, Japan's expansion of influence in China is not only harmful to the United States, but also to Britain, and the Anglo-American policy toward China and the countermeasures for Japan's expansion in China are no different...... At this time, the "Anglo-Japanese alliance" has become a serious obstacle to handling US-British relations and an important factor affecting international relations in the Far East, especially when relations between the United States and Japan are becoming increasingly tense, and Britain is even more reluctant to confront the United States for the sake of Japan......

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