Crown Prince Hirohito asked Osaka and other places to send 35,000 troops to patrol the affected cities. Those who take advantage of the post-disaster chaos to get ill-gotten gains are easy to find. Because the gold and silver jewelry on the dead who were burned to death will give off a strong pungent smell. Anyone who is found to have valuables with this special smell will be executed on the spot.
But Crown Prince Hirohito mobilized troops not only to maintain order in the disaster area, but also for other purposes. He declared martial law through General Masataro Fukuda, and then accused the Koreans and socialists of offending the gods and causing this disaster, accusing them of trying to fish in troubled waters for no reason. The obsession of those fanatical militarists even persuaded some Japanese who feared the gods. About 4,000 unfortunate North Koreans were herded together by the "Black Dragon Regiment" of Japanese militarism and mocked and insulted in every way. After the so-called "street trial", they were pushed to be beheaded in front of earthquake survivors. After the earthquake disaster, these people became innocent political scapegoats. It is a natural disaster and a man-made disaster. The earthquake, as well as the fire and tsunami caused by the earthquake, caused great losses to Japan. This kind of loss can be called astronomical at any time. Tokyo and Yokohama were particularly hard hit by this disaster, followed by Yokosuga and Chiba. 85% houses in Tokyo were destroyed, and 96% houses in Yokohama were razed to the ground. In Japan, 253,000 houses were destroyed by the earthquake, 447,000 houses were destroyed by the fire, and 868 houses were swept away by the tsunami. The whole disaster area in Kanto has killed1430,000 people, injured more than 200,000 people, suffered property losses as high as 30 billion dollars, and had 654.38+million homeless refugees. The densely populated Tokyo area is the hardest hit area, with the largest number of deaths, reaching 7 1 1,000, of which more than 56,000 were killed by fire, more than 1 1,000 were swallowed up by tsunami, and more than 3,000 were killed by house collapse in the earthquake.
9933 1 person died, 43476 people were missing, 103733 people were injured. 128266 houses were destroyed, 126233 houses were seriously damaged, and 447 128 houses were burned. The damage rate of wooden houses in the earthquake is very high. A fire broke out after the earthquake. Tokyo burned an area of about 38.3 square kilometers, and 85% of the houses were destroyed. Yokohama burned an area of about 9.5 square kilometers and 96% of the houses were razed to the ground. The earthquake triggered a tsunami, with the maximum wave height exceeding12m, and 868 houses were swept away and destroyed by the tsunami. The following content may make you feel uneasy, uncomfortable and scared. Please read it carefully.
1923 September11:50, near noon, most families in kanto region are preparing lunch. Suddenly, there was a terrible roar from the ground, and then the earth shook violently. In an instant, the house collapsed and many people were crushed to death in the house before they could react. The cooking stove overturned, causing the wooden house to catch fire.
The epicenter of the earthquake was Sagami Bay, southwest of Tokyo Bay. In this coastal area, besides Tokyo and Yokohama, there are many small towns, collectively called kanto region. With dense population, developed industry and prosperous economy, it is the political, economic and cultural center of Japan. The epicenter was about 60 kilometers from Yokohama and 90 kilometers from Tokyo. Because this area is covered with soft alluvium, most of the wooden houses with poor earthquake resistance completely collapsed and suffered serious losses.
When the earthquake happened, it was time to cook at noon. When the house collapsed, it caught fire almost immediately. Although the fires in Tokyo and Yokohama were small at first, because of the damage of underground water supply pipes and fire-fighting facilities, many streets were crowded and narrow, and firefighters could not put out the fire at all. Firefighters tried to pump water from ditches and wells, but to no avail. When the fire approached, people scrambled to carry household appliances and pull rickshaws to escape, which led to traffic jams, delayed fire fighting, and brought the fire across the road, making the fire spread continuously. Fire grows with the wind, and the wind increases the power of fire. The raging fire rolled up, and the whirlwind expanded the area of the fire.
In addition to the collapse of buildings and secondary fires, secondary disasters such as landslides and tsunamis caused by this earthquake are also very serious.
In the earthquake, there are natural disasters and man-made disasters. After the earthquake, rumors such as "Koreans set fire", "Koreans are going to riot" and "a big earthquake is coming" caused human panic, and some people in the police and the army took the opportunity to destroy dissidents, causing social unrest. In the Modern History of the Three East Asian Countries compiled by Chinese, Japanese and Korean scholars, this incident is described as follows:
In the chaos after the earthquake, the police spread the rumor that "North Koreans are going to hold riots", and the Japanese government declared martial law in Tokyo and Kanagawa. In this case, vigilantes organized by the army, police and citizens killed many Koreans. According to the investigation results of "Korean compatriots in Japan", about 6,000 Koreans were killed. In addition, hundreds of China people were killed.
The police and soldiers thought the socialist and trade union director Dashan Rong was dangerous, so they killed him under the pretext. In addition, some Japanese people in other places were mistaken for Koreans because of their local accents, and they were also killed, because the police only distinguished Koreans from Japanese people according to the pronunciation of the words "15 yuan 50 yuan", and because Korean has no voiced sound, it is difficult to say these words.
The influence of Japan
The occurrence of the Great Kanto Earthquake shocked the Japanese Emperor. Three members of the royal family died, and 200 years of Edo culture was reduced to ashes. The Japanese feel that the country is small and natural disasters are frequent, so they should open up living space. After the annexation of Korea, the Japanese took aim at China, a weak neighbor. After the Great Kanto Earthquake, Japan formulated a series of aggressive strategies to relieve domestic pressure and make up for the shortage of domestic resources. "If you want to conquer the world first, you must conquer China first", focusing on the three northeastern provinces of China. Therefore, curry favor with the northeast warlord Zhang, trying to get their hands on the northeast of China. Later, after the outbreak of the war of aggression against China, the northeast was occupied by the Japanese army, and the puppet Manchukuo was established. Puyi was fostered as a puppet of the puppet Manchukuo, manipulated by the Japanese in an attempt to enslave the people of China, and many immigrant villages were established one after another, so that a large number of Japanese moved to the northeast of China. The Great Kanto Earthquake put Japan in trouble and accelerated the speed of Japan's invasion of China.