Evening star., 1923-09-03
NO WORD RECEIVED
Of i. s. NEWS MEN
Foreign Correspondents May
Have Perished; Airman Says
Yokohama Is Razed.
Special Dispatch TO The Star.

4
SAN FRANCISCO. September g.
Two hundred thousand dead in the
cities of TOXIC and Yokohama.
Toxic swept alternately by earth
quakes and fires until only a few
Isolated buildings remain.
The great city of Yokohama razed
| by a succession of gigantic tidal
waves until not a single house or
building stands.
This. in brief. based upon meager
reports flashed by radio across 4.700
miles of the Pacific from the Japa-
Eese government radio station at
Tomioka, would seem at 8 o'clock
this morning to be an accurate sum
marization of the terrible toll in
lives and property damage wrought
in Japan's great cataclism.
Cable Lines Broken.
The Tomioka wireless station is
the only source of information. Cable
lines across the Pacific are out of
| Not a single foreign correspondent
of several American Press associa-
tions in Toxic and Yokohama has
yet been able to send a message tell
ing of the terrible destruction
| wrought in the debacle that has en-
compassed two great cities. The
belief prevails here that they have
perished along with the thousands
From the Tom:oka radio station
come only intermittent and fire.
quently garbled messages. most of
| them partly in English and partly. in
Japanese. These messages are being
picked from the air here by the re-
ceiving station of the Radio Corpora
| tion Of America and are being given
| out as rapidly as they arrive.
Reports Are Relayed.
The Tomioka station is 144 miles
! south of Toxic and the information
received there is based upon such
reports of the holocaust as have been
! obtainable at such a distance from
| the real scene of the catastrophe.
The latest message received from
! the Japanese wireless station shortly
after z o'clock this morning states
that Premier Yamamoto has called
! the surviving members of his cab
| met together in the home Of Foreign
Minister Goto and that organized at
tempts at bringing order out Of ter
rible chaos are being made.
The same message states that hun
dreds of foreigners in Yokohama
sought refuge aboard ships in the
| harbor there and that many we're
| saved in this way Other rescue
ships, rushed from Osaka and nearby
Japanese coast cities, are standing
p, off Yokohama and rendering all pos
sible aid.
All Yokohama Razed.
| Word that the entire city OF 1oko-
| hama has been razed by succession
/ of tidal waves is contained In
| radio message received shortly before
midnight Sunday from the Tomioka
I station. A Japanese AVIATOR hying
| over the stricken city reported that
not a single house or building could
The same AVIATOR reported that
scores Of big ships driven ashore by
| the tidal waves had been left
| stranded high and dry. Grave fears
are entertained here for the safety
/ of a part of the American Asiatic
fleet which was in Yokohama harbor
at the time of the catastrophe. Naval
/ wireless stations in the ships at
Honolulu and here have been in
! structed to be on the lookout for any
wireless messages from American
! naval vessels in the far east.
/, The same aviator who flew over
Yoko also made a. flight over
| the city of Toxic, but reported the
| nall OF smoke so dense that nothing
could be seen. Tomioka messages re-
! port that the only large buildings left
standing there are the central post
! office and the Toxic railway station.
! The same message states that martial
law has been proclaimed In Toxic
and that six Koreans already have
| been shot near the wrecked Ueno rail-
| way station for looting.