The Great Kanto Earthquake and the Chimera of National Reconstruction in Japan (Contemporary Asia in the World)
A gracefully written and searching analysis that places Japan's deadliest earthquake in historical context. An important contribution to the literature on natural disaster that moves beyond the clichés often told about reconstruction.(Ted Steinberg, Case Western Reserve University)In vivid detail, this timely book explores the many ways the Japanese responded to the earthquake of 1923 -- from debates about the meaning of the disaster through representations of the event in popular culture and the rough-and-tumble politics of reconstruction. Deeply researched and well written, it is a major contribution to the urban history of modern Japan as well as to the burgeoning field of disaster studies.(Peter Duus, Stanford University)Writing in compelling detail, Schencking draws on a broad array of contemporary sources...Highly recommended.(Choice)A comprehensive account of what happened in 1923.... Schencking has artfully combined first-person narratives with media reports and statistics.(Julian RyallSouth China Morning Post)[Schencking] is to be commended for his painstaking research.(Stephen MansfieldThe Japan Times)Wonderfully illustrative... J. Charles Schencking does an excellent job of analyzing not merely the events, aftermath, and reconstruction of Tokyo following the epic disaster of September 1, 1923, but also the cacophony of voices and competing agendas that devoured much of the initial enthusiasm behind the project.(Environmental History)Schencking has... an enviable eye for detail and... prose that is positively poetic... An excellent book... Our understanding of Taisho Japan will only be the richer for Schencking's efforts.(Peter Mauch, University of Western SydneyJapanese Studies1900-01-00)