Evening star., 1923-09-10
EAST is EAST
By FRANK II. HEDGES

4 l--~~--~4~~~------ s~-~~------a
What Ia thatT' asked the latest
arrival from America as the floors OF
the second story Of the Japan Adver-
tiser office in Toxic began to trembie
and the doors and windows to rattle.
1T Is an earthquake" came the re-
ply from Americans who had gone
through many OF the earth tremors
to which Japan Is subject, "and you
had better get out of doors"
| With the first plunge he was at the
head Of the stairs and with the sec
ond had taken the long flight and
was out In the open, but rapid as
was his exit the entire Japanese staff
of translators and compositors was in
the street before him.
| To be startled by an earthquake at
any hour OF the day or TO be awakened
from sleep at night by the rocking
of the house is an almost weekly ex-
perience, for the dwelier In eastern
Japan, but 1t brings about a direct
contradiction to the old adage that
familiarity breeds contempt" Sew
-eral times a year a shock Of such
| intensity occurs as TO cause consider
able damage and the loss of life. Per-
haps every hundred years or so the
tempire suffers from a disaster as
great as that under which Japan is
| now bearing up bravely.
| All Japan Is prepared against the
earthquake. Native houses are so
built OF wood that they sway with
the shaking earth rather than toppie
to the ground. The many-storied
| pagodas are constructed on the prin-
| ciple of an inverted pendulum and
| swing back and forth through the air
as if they were the clapper of some
gigantic bell. Stone walls and en-
bankments are constructed in an arc
| instead of straight line. thus dis
| tributing the tremor over their whole
surface instead of weakening at the
base. In the modern skyscrapers
| that Japan has borrowed from this
country the best of engineering and
scientific skill has been devoted to
devising safeguards against destruc-
ton by earthquake.
| The very islands themselves are the
results OF the violence of nature In
past ages. Japanese mythology. in
accounting for the creation, tells how
the gods on the plain of high heaven"
| dipped their spear points in the brine
and the drops that fell from them
formed the "eight great islands, the
land Of fertile rice fields" The my
| thoiogy, while fantastic, is close to the
| truth, for volcanic eruptions. and
| earthquakes on the bed OF the ocean
lspat forth or heaved upward the chain
of mountains along the coast line of
of Japan.
With the earthquake often comes
the tidal wave, for disturbance at
sea forces the waters of the Pacific
high on the shore, sweeping away
houses and bits or humanity who
struggle helplessly against the force
OF unbridled nature. A simple peas
ant farmer has BECOME one of the
national heroes Of the people of Japan,
a hero honored at Shinto shrines
! throughout the nation.
Years ago in coastal village to
the north of Toxic a great celebra-
tion was being held. The crops had
been gathered and stored on a ter
race several hundred feet up the side
| of the cliff, for the village itself nestled
close to the waves. that Tapped the
sands. Only one man.. so old that
he could scarcely walk. had not gone
to the celebration. but was resting
lin his little house on the cliff, guard
ing the crop of harvested rice and
| straw. AS he watched the gayety
below him, his eyes suddenly lifted
and looked far out to sea. There
in the distance, he saw a great wall
| of water rushing inland. tidal wave
that in a few minutes would engulf
1.-THE happy village and it's throng OF
merrymakers. bringing death and de-
/ Struction.
He could not shout warning that
would be heard. but he seized a pot
of glowing charcoal and threw II
on the rice and straw In a second
the work of a year was blazing, the
flames mounting upward and light
ing the sky with q glare so lurid
that the villagers turned to look and
| then, with anger and hatred distort-
ing their features, ,stormed up the
face of the cliff in an attempt to
arrest the flames. They had scarcely
wall of water struck the beach, bury
ing their, homes and even dashing
| spray into the faces of the groups
huddled on the little ledge of safety
Anger against the old man changed
into heartfelt gratitude. Their years
| harvest and their homes were gone
/ but their lives were saved.
: Feared and dreaded as are earth
quake and flood. fire is even a greater
terror to the Japanese. The very
1 a handicap in the battle against the
flames. The houses of wood and straw
and paper are like tinder, the blaze
| once started running through streets
and whole districts as a prairie fire
crosses the plains of the middle west
I eral fires every winter that will each
| take thousand or more houses as
their toll. Two winters ago the city
of Hakodate. the largest city on the
wiped out by the flames
/ In the spring of 1922 I stood in
| the grounds of the great temple to
the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy,
| Kwannon, in Asakuska Park in north
ern Toxic, and watched cloud of fire
and smoke sweep reIentlessly TO the
very grounds of the sacred inclosure-
grounds that have been made q black
! ened and ruined waste by this last
great catastrophe. The red and yell
| low tongues leaped from house to
1 Ihouse, while just before the approach
| ing horror fed thousands of Japanese
whose homes and possessions were
| being taken by the flames. High on
the roof of his home, sharply out
lined against the dancing red back
ground of fthe iame-covered sky
stood an old man with hands out
| stretched, clasping his Buddhist
4 rosary and praying that his little
/ house might be spared He refusad