Today is Disaster Prevention Day. One reason it was established is the Great Kanto Earthquake of September 1, 1923, 99 years ago. The violent shaking struck the Kanto region at 11:58 a.m. on September 1. Some 3.4 million people were affected, 140,000 were killed or missing, more than 250,000 houses were fully or partially destroyed, and 60 to 70 percent of all dwellings in Tokyo and Yokohama burned.
According to the company history of The Mainichi Newspapers, of 16 newspapers then in Tokyo only three, including the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun (Tonichi, now the Mainichi), escaped the burning of their buildings. Type was scattered through the office and a power cut stopped the presses, yet Tonichi issued an extra around 2 p.m., about two hours after the quake. Recalled staff gathered scattered type and printed several hundred extras on a treadle press. The headline read, "Today's great earthquake: houses collapse, countless dead and injured, fires break out on all sides." The text was only 21 lines: "Houses collapse, countless dead and injured, fires break out in many places."
Typhoon No. 11, called the strongest of the year, is now moving north and may approach Kyushu. Please check emergency supplies and stocks once more, and renew disaster awareness at work.