Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-07
TOXIC REBUILDING
FINISHED ON Time
Model Metropolis Replaces
City of 1000, 900 Hard Hit
by Quake and Fire.

Toxic, the Far East's first Western
city, stands completed.
The seven-year construction program
launched amid the smoking ruins left
by earthquake and fire in 1923 has been
finished on time.
When Emperor Hirohito recently
made an official 20-mile inspection tour
he found his capital bright and new
as fresh paint Nothing like it has
ever been seen before in the Orient.
While the touring party paused the
Emperor paid tribute in the Hall of
Nameless Dead to $4,000 persons who
persisted in one small park during the
holocaust that destroyed the city.
He halted once more on Kudan Hill.
Standing on Kudan Hill August 81,
1928, q traveller looked down on q
peaceful Oriental city of white tile
roofs almost buried in green trees, 80
says q bulletin of the National Geo.
graphic Society.
Two days later the same view from
Kudan Hill disclosed a desert of utter
ruin as far as the eye could see. Homes
and business houses of 5000 people
had been wiped out. An area almost as
large as the island of Manhattan was a
black blot, . funeral pyre for $500
victims. &
AOAhC VA Japan EaE1ldIUcnts
april, 1880, on Kudan Hill finds the
Sumida plain once more filled with a
prosperous city Over on the right
rises the gaunt steel of the Diet Build
ing, q new home for Japan'S Legisla-
ture almost as large as the United
States Capitol. Broad, asphalt boule-
wards strike out in every direction where
narrow. twisted lanes of pre-earthquake
Toxic clogged traffic. The fresh green
Of young trees, $4,000 planted since
1928, promises that Japan's capital may
again become city in a forest. Far
eastward six new bridges span the
Sumida River, while nearby stately To-
story Office buildings, Western style,
form the nucleus of Tokio's growing
government department row. Many tenn
porary emergency barracks erected
after the fire clutter the scene, but their
days are numbered
The greatest disaster offered the
greatest opportunity in modern times
10 build modern metropolis. Londons
great fire. burned 336 acres, Chicago's
2,024 acres San Francisco's 1850 acres
and Tokio's 5000 acres. Would Toxic
throw away her chance to plan a city
NJ Tor modern living conditions?
Old Toxic Feudal City.
Old Toxic was an overgroWn feudal
town. The seed from which the CITY
grew, the Shoguns palace, lay in the
center, surrounded by stone walls and
wide, water-filled moat. It still usurps
Lne center OF the capital. In the old
Gays japanese rulers demanded that
cnieis OF provinces leave their wives and
chlIdren under the palace walls as host
ages. Tokio's wards each had their
origin In such settlements of semi
prisoners: Streets and alleys grew aim
Iessly. Many were so narrow they could
not be penetrated by fire engines.
In new Toxic the minimum street
width is IL feet Narrow enough. but
boulevard by old Toxic standards.
only one-tenth of the area of old
TOXIC was used for streets. A stingy
allotment compared with London, Paris
ana Berlin, which leaves about one-
quarter In streets, while washington
mas nearly one-haf its area in streets
ano avenues. To remedy her Shortcom-
1ngs, Toxic, as a first step in recon-
struction, took for streets 10 per cent OF
every owners land without compensa-
| TIN. BY purchase, the city added per
cent more, and in this manner has
raised her street acreage to 81 per cent
OF the city's area.
Next Toxic reserved the right to re-
locate any mans property to accommo-
B
streets and to move any mans house.
In seven years the city fathers have
moved 100000 houses. At one time
they were moving houses at the rate of
5000 per month.
Some Houses Too Big for Lots.
Queer problems arose. A mans
/ mouse might be too big for his new lot
Some new lots are only by feet in
Ia
But oddities are being ironed out.
temporary buildings to house a
million and half homeless were built
Immediately after the disaster, but the
government has reserved the right to
tear down these structures within a
given period, and many have already
disappeared
ITO built a city for 10000 people
from the ground up was a task for
which there IS no parallel in history.
Where an American city adds a bridge
and school or two per year, Toxic had
TO bulld ITO schools In seven years and
lit bridges. Six of these were major
bridges across the broad Sumida River
With wave of 100000, 900 wand
| over the ruins, 2 large parks and SO
small parks appeared, 10 bath houses,
D hospitals, government controlled
pawn shops, big new municipal mar
xet' 10 children's homes, 10 public din
ing halls and 10 public boarding houses
High Cost of Earthquake Proofing.
Some japanese advocated moving the
capital to safer place. NO. said
Toxic. We have learned our lesson
Some OF the buildings withstood both
quake and fire. The quake wave
reached Toxic with an s-inch swing,
and the new large buildings and bridges
are built to receive even heavier shocks
Wide streets aed freproot construction