Evening star., 1923-11-01
By ADACHI KINNOsUKE.


nosuke. who is probably the foremost
writer upon japanese matters in America.
By ADACHI KINNOSUKE.
Strange how a thing looks differ
emily to different peoples-a thing
like the late Japanese earthquake.
especially. AS a catastrophe, the
twenty-fiv century history of Nippon
remembers nothing like 1t. But to my
own beloved countrymen it's no. ca
tastrophe. Because it, looks to them
more like price Japan has paid for
three things: a-..--..:s. es,5s;-.....-
, l. A model modern city-the great
er Toxic, of which the 5,00o,o 900 in and
about the old capital city on Toxic
bay have been dreaming for the past
half century.
2. A new scientific Industrial re-
gime in Japan.
8. A revolution in her living condi-
tions.
After the first shock of disaster
the outstanding fact which sticks out
of and above the .smoldering horizon
is this: The trsfnenodus smash-up laid
the foundation of a new city which
nothing else could have laid, and in a
Titanic ana adequate way DeNOllu The
cunning Of human engineers.
Toxic was without an adequate
sewerage system this summer. when
I was there. 1t was one of the crying
needs of the great city. The city was
talking a good deal about it. 1t was
spending much money in answering
the need in a broken. fragmentary
manner, wholly inadequate and fu-
tile.
Paving without Sewers.
And meanwhile the city was spend
ing a fortune in paving the streets
Why pave the streets when the sewer
is not dovn?s Why pave just to have
it all torn UP again? But the need
for a better street surface. for tr3fflc
was as impatient as the cry for
first aid in time of plague. The city
simply had to do something Willy
niliy. The city, moreover, did not nav
money for a comprehensive sewerag
system Peace is such an attractiv
lady, but entirely too ladylike Tor
heroics. The municipal government OF
TOXIC would have had goose flesh all
over herself at the mere dream OF shcn
n thing as half-bi!lion-dolIa NUM- nj
cipal loan in the piping days OF her
prosperity. Today she does that very
same thing without battinf an eye
now that the smash came along and
laid low the whole works.
Water sIain Progress.
Take the matter OF water mains:
It was the month of July exactly 333
years ago that the founder OF tne
Tokugawa ShoEunate ordered SAM
urai called Okubo to work out plan
of waterworks for his Yedo City:
That was the beginning, and in loo4
the government of the Shotgun COM
pleted the waterway for the city, tax
Hamura. up in the country of Mu-
SASH. Meanwhile the Yedo City in
creased nightly in number of people.
Did the government build a new wa
terworks? Not at all. 1t ,mended II
here and there and tinkered at it
somewhere else. 1t was not satsfac-
tory. 1t WAS made to answer Ihe
government worked as all human be-
tngs work Under similar circum-
stances. Instead of spending money
and efforts to create an adequate ana
ample answer to the city's needs,
they simply turned the scanty water
supply into a school of patience, and
made the people cultivate virtue in
stead of having. enough wafer for
their convenience and well-being. 1t
was, for one thing, cheaper and less
work. 1t took an earthquake to in
stall a new and satisfactory system
Water s,rstcm Inadequate.
When the present system was
built, with the technical assistance OF
Prof. Burton of the Imperial Cniver-
sfty of Toxic and of Maj. Gen. Pal
mer of the British army and Ger
man engineer. called Gill, no one,
either on the commission of street
improvements, which designed the
system. or outside of it, ever dreamed
of the city of Toxic of 1928. 1t was
meant to answer the needs of a city
of 100000, allowing about four cubic
feet of water per capita per day.
And just what happened when the
nj n
a brand-new system? Not at all.
The authorities went on tinkering.
precisely as their august ancestors
had done before them. OF course.
there was a lot of talk and more
planning by high-sounding commits
sions-and a little Improvement here
and there as in the good old days.
Nothing more than that happened.
And, as of yore, once again there
came along an earth shock which
literally threw the catastrophe of
1903 into the shade and smashed up
the old. decrepit waterway system
into where the Buddhas sit on their
lotus flowers. AS of yore. it took a
first-class earthquake to put a new
water supply system into being.
Now in Nippon, a modern city in
an American sense is not a growth.
It's an innovation, and violent one.
1t simply cannot be grated on the
old. And up to this day grating is
about the only thing the city build
ers of Nippon have done. Therefore
and naturally this. present great
earthquake opens a new chapter. 1t
has buried a makeshift and a hybrid
sham. But it did not stop there. 1t
laid the foundation of a new city
which will be a real thing, both under
the ground and above 1t.
VIII BE Model CITY.
The Greater Toxic that shall rise
out of the ashes will be a model city.
1t will be more modern than the city
of New York by far. 1t Will be more
model than the newest city In Texas
such magnitude and complexity that
q mere historyless new city can never
approach 1t.
It's influences on the future cities
Of Japan viii! be revolutionary and
sweeping But IL does not stop there.
It's effect on hundreds of cities which
are standing there today would be
tremendous. For this simple reason:
1T will laugh all the near-modern
cities of Japan out of existence by
sheer comparison. When once large
number of the Japanese get the taste
of the real thing, all the counterfelts
might as we'll make up their minds
TO pass into the shadow world of all
forgotten things.
The new Toxic to come Will reVolu-
tionize the life conditions of the city
people. This summer l found the peo-
pie of Toxic living double life. At
the restaurants, at the theaters, at
lecture halls. at government offices.
everywhere there were large num-
ber of people employed to check your
shoes instead Of your hats and coats.
The large modern structures of brick
and stone cannot and will not permit
people to walk into them with their
wooden clogs. On the other hand, the
spotless mats of the pure Japanese
houses of the old style cannot be
muddled and torn up by occidental
shoes. .