The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-07-13
JAPAN S CALAMITY
Details of the Earthquake
and Tidal Wave / on
the Pacific Coast.
THIRTY THOUSAND DEAD
No Premonition Of the Awful
Event--Wall Of Water
Thirty Feet High.
Terrible Noise Enhances the Terror
horrible Condition of the
Dead-Towns Wiped Out.

SAN FRANCISCO, July 13. 1sse.-Th
Toxic correspondent of the United Press
writing under date of June 26. thu
graphically describes the devastation
wrought by the seismic wave which re
Gently visited the Northeast coast o
Japan.
Japan has been visited by "a calamit,
of almost unprecedented magnitude. Oh
the 18th of June. at half past eight o'clocl
IN the evening. seismic wave struci
the northeast coast of the main island
throughout a distance of about 200 miles
and in five minutes $1,000 people wer'
killed and 1900 houses destroyed. Thi'
is the whole story
Anyone can identify the locality of th'
disaster by a glance of the map of Japan
From the island of Kinka-San, on thu
south CN. lat. sS.15. E. lon 141.sW. t.
Hachinoye. on the north On. lat. 1890, e
Ion 141.3O), the coast Of Rikuzen ant
Rikushu provinces assumes distinctly
convex shape Throughout the whole O.
this bow-like area, nearly every town ant
village was visited by the wave. the por'
ton being Motoyoshi IN. lat. $40, E. lon
141.2 .2S) and Yamada On. lat. 1928, E. Ion
l42) suffered most severely The genera
direction of the wave appears to have
been north by east, for, after carrying
devastation to the shore of the main
island it left Yezo on the west. touching
that island at Yerimo Cape only.
In the crash of tnundations. cyclones,
or even earthquakes. there is a record
of moro or less continuous mischief and
more or less successful struggle against
the forces of destruction; but in the
case of seismic wave, one tremendous
blow accomplishes the whole calamity in
an instant.
At half-past eight the inhabitants OF
numerous towns and hanlets along the
coast were celebrating the Boys Festi-
val'' on the fifth of the fifth month, ac-
cording to the old calendar; at twenty
five minutes before nine 10000 of them
had been swept out to sea or thrown
dead upon the shore, and 5000 Of their
.shssaaAS -laasS- aisspneared mr. lay wrecked.
There was nothing to presage the dis
aster. From II in the forenoon until 4.3O
in the afternoon heavy rain fell. 1t
was followed by fine evening and a
dark. calm night. There is much diff
Guilty in obtaining perfectly accurate
statements as to the times of the phe-
nomena that proceeded the final catas-
trophe: they were too Insignificant to
seem worth recording. Several accounts
agree, however, that at about seven
O'CLOCK three or four shocks of earth
quake were felt, not violent shocks,
though of the vertical kind that folks in
Japan have learned to dread. The bar
ometer at the time gave no indication
of anything unusual. Some twenty or
sound became audible from the direction
of thes sea. 1t appears to have been
yariously interpreted. Some construed it
as the noise of coming gale; others sup
reached the offing.
Only very few suspected the real sig
nificance OF the sound and fed inland at
increased until it assumed the volume and
deafening din Of a great pack of artil-
lery, and then, in moment, waves from
20 to 30 feet high were laundering against
the shore. The places the actual totals
of deaths reached the highest figures
We're not always the ones that suffered
most in proportion to their population
OF the three procedures visited By the
wave-Iwate. Miyagi and Aomori-Iwate
had by far the largest aggregate of dis
asters, its list of dead amounting to
25,ooo Some of the details, however
convey more graphic idea of the facts
than any general statement can suggest
Kamashi is little seaside town, stu
ated at the head of rocky inlet two
miles deep and directly facing the Pa
csfic Ocean. Behind it is precfpitious
hill The inhabitants seem to have re-
of what was pending. A little after eight
IN the evening q mountain of sea was
OF opseFved ptlng itself up at the mouth
OF the inlet, and in moment, with a
thunderous roar, waves thirty feet high
swept over the town.
rushed forward, the first incomparably
the most terrible, and in less than two
minutes the town was virtually annihil-
ated. Out of 1,22s dwellings, only 143 re-
NAMED standing. and out Of q population
Of 6557, death had overtaken 4,700 and 500
lay wounded. In completeness of destruc-
tion this record heads the list.
Scarcely less appalling was the work OF
the waves in d bay some FIVE miles farther
north. There. in the village of Futaisiai.
only 100 persons escaped death out of a
population of 100, and only two houses
out OF as many hundred remained stand
ing At Yamada, 700 houses out of 900 were
DESTROYED and 5000 persons were killed out
of 4200
At Toni, $50 houses were swept away
out Of 2e9 and LOB persons were killed and
~ wounded out of a total Of l2O6.
In the Kissen district, one town and
eleven villages attacked by the waves had
$3.50 persons killed and l,560 houses washed
away or wrecked.
WHOLE Uanlift
houses was annihilated and the sole sur
vivors were a party of men that happened
to be playing Co in a temple situated
on high ground
such are the tales Of death and ruin
that come from place after place. the ter
rible totals at this moment Of writing
being 2907s killed, 7737 wounded and 1874
houses washed or wrecked.
In the prefecture Of Iwate, where SO
towns and villages on the coast were
visited by the wave, 25.4l3 persons were
killed and 69779 wounded out of a total
population Of l047l. so that out OF every
three inhabitants one was killed or
er males or females preponderate among
the Victims Statistics from Miyagi pre-
lecture show that out OF 1876 deaths in
twenty villages SIG were males apd 500
females.
On the other hand. a traveller passing
through the two halnlets Of Tannoura and
Funakoshi the day after the catastrophe,
saw only thirty young men there Not
living woman or child was visible On
the road however, Within distance of
some two hundred yeards, he encounter
ed eorpses of women and children to the
number Of 3d.
There were some remarkable escapes.
tho bay. were thrown up alive on the
opposite beach. In one case several per-
<ens were deposited on an island nearly
three miles from the town whence the
wave had torn them. "A few saxed their
lives BY eiinEing to baulks OF timber and
leq,ris 81 wrecked buildings were pre- pre-
perfed until The wave secedea' At an Inn