210 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1945 



There were numerous severe aftershocks, and one on the following 

 clay about 40 miles to the eastward was nearly as great as the main 

 shock. Soon after the main shock a tsunami swept Sagami Bay and 

 the adjacent coasts. Its maximum height was 36 feet, though 10 to 

 16 feet was more common. These heights scarcely correspond to the 

 reported great displacement in the epicentral region. In some places 

 uplift of the land reduced the effect of the tsunami. 



The shock occurred just as the noon meal was being prepared, and 

 people rushed from their houses, abandoning overturned stoves. The 

 fallen wooden houses, and drugs, chemicals, and gasoline, amply fed 

 the flames. A total of 134 separate blazes were counted, and these 

 soon joined in a single conflagration. A fully efficient fire department 

 could have clone little, as the earthquake had put the water system out 

 of order. There was a shifting wind, reaching a velocity of nearly 50 

 miles per hour, and the conditions set up tornadoes. It is said that 

 40,000 persons died in one group in an open city square. That no one 

 escaped has been attributed to fires in possessions of the refugees, but 

 there is reason to believe that many deaths were due to lack of oxygen 

 in the air. A similar cause of death has been suggested in the burning 

 of Hamburg, Germany. In Tokyo, an area of 7 square miles was 

 burned and only 15 percent of the buildings escaped. Many of those 

 lost were government and business buildings, libraries, art galleries, 

 and museums, so that the loss of irreplaceable books, records, and 

 objects of all kinds could scarcely be evaluated. 



Yokohama was only 40 miles from the epicenter, as against 57 for 

 Tokyo, and the damage from earthquake was 10 times as great. Three 

 square miles, or half the total area of the city, was burned. The loss 

 from fire was GO percent of the buildings, but the earthquake damage 

 accounted for 20 percent more, leaving only 20 percent undamaged. In 

 a town near the epicenter 95 percent of the houses were thrown down. 



Damage to structures and public utilities will be briefly described. 

 It was estimated that 18,000 factories were destroyed. Large buildings 

 in Tokyo stood the shock fairly well. About half the tall stacks fell. 

 Bridges suffered severely; wooden bridges were burned, and some 

 steel spans were thrown off the piers, or were distorted when slides or 

 mud flows moved the abutments, shortening the distance between them. 

 Many of the bridges carried pipes and electric lines, and so the effective 

 damage was increased. Fallen bridges prevented the escape of refu- 

 gees. A total of 2,270 vessels, mostly of small size were lost. 



More than 400 miles of railway were damaged by vertical or hori- 

 zontal ground displacement, with damage to tunnels and culverts. 

 Streetcars and generating systems were damaged by fire and landslides. 

 In Tokyo, 56 miles of canals were damaged by slides. In Yokohama, 

 4,800 feet of breakwater settled 8 feet or more and the 1,300-foot land- 



