The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-11-18
ALBANIAN TELLS OF JAPAN QUAKE
(Conttnued from Precedlng Page.l

bricks with here and there the Burned and blackened walls of what had been a brick or concrete store- house. The street itself was almost impossible so cluttered was 1t by the burned and distorted remains of street cars, automobiles, bicycles and s1vagons of all descriptions. Literally speaking you could look for miles and see nothing but smoking ruins with here and there the gaunt, empty, staring shell of some three or four story brick building which by some miracle had withstood the jars of the earthquake only for its fire scorched and crumbling walls to be constant menace to passersby. No one knew when another shock would bring these survivors down in a crashing heap upon all who happened to be so unfortunate as to be near just at that time. The loss of life in this district was not so very great as the fire was comparatively slow in com ing, so that most of the people got away with treb lives, but little else. Finds American Embassy.
 T finally arrived at the Imperial hotel, which by 8 miracle had stood unburned. Here I found the Ameri- can embassy established and already taking measures to help the dis tressed people. It had taken me just 40 hours to do what was under usual circumstances g nine-hour trip. As soon as I arrived I reported to Colonel Burnett, our military at tache, who had been put in charge of the relief work. He told me that had arrived in Yokahoma the day be- fore and that the Huron, flagship of the Asiatio fleet, was due the next day with probably another destroyer division.
 Tt certainly did make me feel good to know that the navy was on the job.
 who was going to the JapaneseS navy department to arrange for one of our destroyers to come up near Tokyo to take off foreign refugees. I cer- tainly did feel funny when l got there, for all of the people there were clean while I was very, very filthy and as black as a negro from the coal on the train. We came on back and 1t was arranged that 1 should go down to Yokahoma to act as Jason officer between our fleet and the Japanese authorities. As I now had little time to spare l borrowed a bicycle and rode down to Tsukiji, where I had lived with MT. and Mrs. Wynd.
 II had hoped to the last that it was saved as several wide canals cut this district off from the city proper, but as events showed that did not do one bit of good. Everything was gone, even the green trees in the garden had been burned so badly that they were just like sticks of charcoal stuck in the ground. The only thing of mine that found was a wire coat hanger, still hot, on which my dress suit had formerly hung.
 That evening I went aboard the destroyer Whipple with our naval attache, Captain Gotten, who was go- ing down to confer with Admiral Anderson on the Huron. It felt simply wonderful to get bath and to change into clean clothes which Willie Rees and others of my class mates placed at my disposal. l threw away the clothes I had been wearing as no laundry could ever do away with the dirt and smell of them. l stayed on board the Whipple the next day at Yokahoma.
 Yokahoma Wiped Out.
 Yokahoma had been even more completely wiped out than Tokyo. There were only three buildings left standing in the whole city and all of these had been burnt. It seems as if the whole city must have collapsed at the first shock, There was a heavy scum of oil on the water Wnlch came from the broken and still burn ing oil tanks near town. It IS said that soon after the quake this oii' which was already beginning to cover the surface of the water caught fire. It seemed to the terror stricken peo- ple as if the very water itself had caught on fire. When the inevitable tidal wave came the wind took the form of a small cyclone which sucked up this burning oil. making a veri- table pillar of fire. This monstrous burning waterspout began to move slowly towards the ships helpless!y anchored in the harbor, which all ready had many refugees aboard. Soon the wind sucked up enough watch which was formed into steam by the heat of the burning oil ana when sufficient steam had peen formed the whole waterspout ex- ploded with a deafening roar amlds. clouds of steam which had the gooo effect of putting out the fire on the water, thus saving the ships.
 "The next morning. reported aboard the Huron and was immedt- = ately sent to Tokyo on the Smith Thompson. which was to be stationed there. The duty that I was sent on was to select docking sites for our ships boats, for landing of supplies for the fleet and the taking off of foreigners. It took the better part of two days to do this and to try to go over Tokyo and make an esti- mate of the amount of the damage and the number of people killed. on this duty I had to go through the worst devastated districts of Tokyo and the sight was simply appalling
  Finds s0,OO0 Dead.
 "In the districts of Fukagawa, Honjo and Asakusa it seemed that every pile of wreckage had its ac- companiment of dead, half burned bodies. In one vacant lot of about eight acres I saw a burned and mangIAd mess of what was told me had been. 3o.o0o living human be- ings but a short week before. The river and canals were choked with dead and bodies were floating all over the surface of the harbor. The Japanese had already started the cremation of the bodies. When got up on a little knoll and looked around could see the rising of that distinctive greasy, bluish-white smoke, which meant that the mortal remains of human beings was being converted to ashes to be scattered no one knew where, rising from numberless places.
 "When I returned to the Huron I was temporarily assigned to the admiral's staff. my duties being to keep the embassy at Tokyo in formed of what we were doing and to pave the way for cooperation with the Japanese naval authorities. I did this until the Huron left and then continued with Captain Lin- coin, our senior officer present, who was on the Black Hawk. When the Black Hawk left went with her to Kobe. where I got off and went up to see Mrs. Wynd. who had come to Dr. R.. A. Thompson's house bringing what few clothes I had left to Kobe. It surely did seem rood to get into clothes and shoes that were