The record-union., 1896-07-13


III the prefecture of Iwate, where 80
towns and villages on the coast were
visited by the wave, 25,4 Alb persons were
killed and 6,779 wounded out of a total
population of 4,771, so that out OF
every three inhabitants one was killed
or wounded 1t is difficult yet to say
whether males or females preponderate
among the victims. Statistics from Mi
yagi prefecture show that out of 1916
deaths in twenty villages, SIG were
males and 500 females. On the other
hand a traveller passing through the
two hamlets of Tannoura and Funako-
Shi the day after the catastrophe, saw
only thirty young men there. Not a
living woman or a child was visible.
Oh the road, however, within distance
of some 200 yards he counted corpses
of women and children to the number or
thirty three.
There were some remarkable escapes.
Men swept out to sea from one side OF a
bay were thrown up alive at the opposite
beach; in one case several persons were
deposited on an island nearly three miles
from the town whence the wave had
torn them. A few saved their lives by
clinging to balkS of timber, and sew
eral getting wedged among the wooden
| debris of wrecked buildings, were pre-
served until the wave receded. At an
inn in Oura a traveller, apparently the
| only man in the house, was graSped py
| four terrified women and the combined
weight of the five furnished steady
point.
But such bright incidents were rare,
whereas of ineXpressibly sad happen
| ings there are numbers. The parents OF
| six children caused the little ones to
throw their arms around the beams OF
| the house. There they clung, the water
reaching UP to their shoulders. The
smallest child, losing its hold, was
swept away and its mother, springlng
after it, shared it's fate. Presently the
father, trying to fend off some of the
floating debris that threatened to strike
| the children, was carried off and the five
| orphans alone remained In another
| family of ten one child of eight drifted
| to a rock and was saved; and in an
other family Of the same number, the
| father having carried a baby to hill
and found that none of the others fol-
/ lowed, sat down the baby and ran back
only to perish with the rest.
| The story of a retired soldier is worth
repeating. His experiences in the re-
! cent war had taught him to apprehend
the raiding of Japan's coasts by hos
| tile fleet Thus when the cannon-Eke
roar of the advancing waters and the
cries of the people reached him, he
threw on his tunic and ran shorewards,
sword in hand. Next morning his corpse
was found much battered, but not sep
arated from the sword.
| Strange to say, fishermen plying their
trade four miles from the coast did not
observe anything to indicate the occur
renee of a serious phenomenon, though
/ a party only three miles out in the same
district encountered heavy breakers
rolling from the north. By-and-by one
! of the boats observed what seemed to
| be large fish floating on the water, but
! on rowing nearer they saw it was a
! child lying on a mat. In the same man
ner three other children were picked up
! by a fisherman, who, to his astonish-
ment, found that one of them was his
own son.
! Inexpressibly sad was. the case Of some
| fishermen, who, returning shoreward in
the early morning after the catastrophe,
received their first notice of what had
|
wives and children floating in the water.
At points closer to the center of the dis
turbance, however, the commotion in
the water was perceptible to a much
greater distance from the shore. Thus
a party of fishermen that were out look
ing for funny off the ShZukawa Coast,
heard as they supposed the booming OF
big guns in the distance. Soon after
| o.+rr a-1 w
surface of the ocean heave In huge
masses, which after rising to mountain
Gus nights broke in the middle and
swept northwaId and southwark, ulti-
mateIy striking the shore with a deaf
ening crash. The waves passed under
the boats without swamping them, but
the water in the vicinity Of the shore re-
mained so rough throughout the night
that the fishermen could not make land
until morning, when they found their
wives and children dead and their
homes in ruins.
The scene presented by the devastat-
ed districts is shocking. Wrecked houses
lie piled upon each other; moss-coVered
| roofs Of thatch that sheltered happy
| families a few days ago in quiet ooun-
| try hooks are strewn pell nell on the
f I
walls torn away stand, mere skeletons;
! there. others have been wrenched from
their foundations, telescoped into each
ether, tumbled upside down or heaped
together in shattered confusion.
In one instance the immense mass of
water rushing up narrow inlet, tore
from their foundations the houses on
either side and drove them with terrific
] 4-1-@ trJ,1 oh hay~G
they now lie, crushed into a confused
mass Of timber, thatch and wreckage OF
all kinds, the grave of many a nrangled
body Horses and cattle lie wedged
among the rocks and men and women
wander about. stupefled and helpless
looking as though their minds and ener-
| gieiS had been nuanbed.
Numerous corpses are still buried un-
4 der the debris of ruined buildings or un-
1 der heaps of mud and sand thrown VI
by the waves, and often when a body is
disinterred no friend or relative remains
alive to identify 1T. The Government IS
Of course, adopting vigorous measures
A Cf relief and liberal subscriptions are
pouring into the newspaper offices, both
vernacular and foreign, for when ca
lamity overtakes japanese the benevo-
} lence of the foreign community is inva-
riably high handed.
II AS to the cause of the disaster, opin-
: ions are still divided. AT first 1t was
j supposed that the disturbance had Its
) origin in sudden collapse of the sides
of the subtelranean crater known as
Il Tusoarora Deep. An officer of the
United States navy some years age
( found a trough-like depression off the
1 coast. The heavy sounding lead took