Evening star., 1923-09-17

of Pacific ocean. Messages that ar
rive, even press dispatches, are three,
four, five days-in some cases week
old. Radio communication. which
for five days furnished the only
known facts about the disaster. has
been shut down by operation of a
censorship.
Fears All But Truth.
Japan, less than a hundred years
removed from Sayagery and perhaps
the most progressive nation in the
world, fears that anything but the
truth will work irreparable harm to
the great commerce she has built UP.
When facts are available such censor
ship undoubtedly will be lifted.
II will be weeks, however, before
anything resembling an accurate esti-
mate of the tremendous loss of life
can be made. Reliable estimates of
property loss cannot be Forthcoming
for many months.
ReIayed and delayed information from
Toxic states that $4,000 dead bodies
already have been buried or burned;
that the total dead will run over 100, 600.
Other dispatches, their facts CLEANED
from persons who saw Toxic after
it's holocaust had been spent, state
that only parts of the downtown
business district were burned; that
it's outlaying sections, in so far as fire
was concerned, came through un-
ScatheG.
Yet If $4,000 dead already have
been buried in Toxic and total life
loss there will exceed 100000 what
must have been the terrible toll of
Yokohama?
All dispatches to date have been
strangely silent. about the tragedy of
Yokohama. A great commercial port
of more than 100000 people. It was
the earth. Not a building stands
but that was charred in the configra-
tion that ragged within a few moments
after the first savage temblors.
Fire Spread Slowly.
Tokio's FIRE did not come for some
hours after the first earthquakes.
Eyewitnesses say that it spread
slowly. Not so with Yokohama. The
raging inferno that swept everything
before il followed fast on the heels
of shattering quakes. People had
little or no chance to escape. Re-
treat was cut off. Those who man
aged to flee from falling buildings
and dwellings were cut down in the
middle of the streets as they fed.
Thousands managed to reach the
water front.
Eyewitnesses, upon whose memory
the dreadful spectacle is lndelibiy
printed for life, paint horrible Word
picture of the bund, the thorough
fare that leads along Yokohama's s
water front. Block after block Tor q
distance of more than two miles, they
say, bodies lay interwlned with eaCn
other so thickly that II was oiHcult
to move through them without Step
ping upon the dead. This great horde,
to ali appearances, collapsed from
suffocation when they were less thah
fifty feet-in some cases less imam
ten feet-from possible SAFETY IN tns !;
water. Countless others, who plunBeo
ANfNN ar
IT is safe to conjecture that most
of Yokohama's dead will be found IN
the wrecked and charred ruins OF
coliapsing structures. In many CASE > ;
no evidence whatever will be found
because the. flames will have left
none, and it. will take months and
even years to delve into the miles
upon miles of ruins that lie where
Yokohama once stood.
Material additions to the lists OF
both Toxic and Yokohama's dead Will
be forthcoming months from now.
Considering the quick and complete
destruction OF Yokohama, 1t is not
unreasonable to believe that the
greater part of her congested popula-
tion may have perished with her.
1t Is a worldwide belief that the
greatest catastrophe of all time was
the destruction of Ponpeii. You can
meet people on almost any street
corner today who will tell you that
not even ITdBcNlcc VI
and Toxic will transcend Pompeifs 8
debacIe. Its tragic fame has been
carried down through twenty CEN
turtles and immortaliZed by such
famous writer's as Bulwer.
The slaughter of .Pompeii is dwarf
ed into insignificance even by the
reported number of dead already
buried in Toxic. The population of
the ancient town at the foot of
Vesuvius was not more than twelve
thousand-and history records that
most of them escaped. The same
applies to such terrible disasters as
those of Galveston and of San Fran
CISCO. Five thousand lost their lives
at Galveston and 500 perished in this
city seventeen years ago in it's dual
castigation of earthquake and fire.
Because they, too, have faced the
scourge of death and destruction, San
Franciscans, probably better than
people in any other part of America,
have a clearer conception of what
has befallen the two premier cities
of Japan. They know how deep the
scars will go and how great the
courage demanded to rebuild upon
the ruins of the old. AT such times,
too, they know that sublime. courage
supplants the more ordinary kind and
chat TOXIC at least. quarter CEN
tury from now, will have arisen to
even greater glories. And unlike
Pompeii, having arisen again, what
an <indelible chapter will be inscribed
in the history Of time twenty CEN
turtles hencei