They have nowhere to escape, only death is waiting for them!
More than 24,000 people who tried to escape the fire in Yokohama Park were surrounded by flames and burned alive."《》"
Even the lake in the park was scorching with steam from the fire, and people who jumped into the lake were scalded to death by the hot water in the lake. The fire turned the Kanto region of Japan into a hell on earth, full of murderous intent.
What's incredible is that even the people on the beach couldn't save their lives.
Thousands of victims fled to the beach and jumped into the sea one after another, grabbing onto some floating objects and the edges of boats. Water and fire are incompatible, so it seemed natural to jump into the sea to escape the fire.
However, this time it turned into something completely different.
A few hours later, an explosion occurred at an oil depot near the beach, and more than 100,000 tons of oil was injected into Yokohama Bay. The fire ignited the oil on the water surface, and Yokohama Bay turned into a veritable sea of fire.
More than 3,000 people who took refuge in the sea were burned to death by the fire. If you can't escape the fire demon in the water, there is almost nowhere to hide in the entire Kanto region. In Yokohama City, the fire destroyed more than 60,000 houses...
The epicenter of this earthquake was on the seabed of Aangmo Bay, causing a large-scale tsunami. Due to the strong earthquake, large-scale movements of the seafloor crust occurred. The maximum vertical movement of the seafloor near Oshima reached 400 meters and moved 4 meters to the north. Pavilion
The seafloor rose near the mountain and moved 3 meters to the southeast. Such violent movement of the seafloor crust caused huge waves to surge up and violently hit the coast. After earthquakes and fires, large-scale tsunamis occurred again.
In order to escape earthquakes and fires, people who had a chance to escape began to look for a place where they could not hold down buildings after they collapsed and where fires could not burn them. The only places that could meet these two requirements were beaches, ports and piers. So, fearful people
They flocked to the beaches, piers and ports in Tokyo, Yokohama and other places.
But the tsunami caused by the earthquake set off huge waves, which rushed like a devil to the ports, docks, and beaches along the coast of Aomo Bay - the places where the victims thought they were safe places to live. The sea suddenly lost the tenderness and romance described by writers.
, became ferocious and terrifying.
When the evacuated victims saw huge waves more than ten meters high coming from across the sky, they hurriedly ran inland, trampling many people to death.
In fact, it is difficult to escape from the tsunami, because the huge waves hit the coast at a speed of 750 kilometers per hour, so people on the shore are instantly swallowed up by the big waves, or are swept to the depths of the ocean, or are swept away by the big waves.
They were thrown into the air, and some were thrown to the land by huge waves.
The various ships anchored in various ports and piers were either broken or sunk by the ferocious waves, or they were knocked into and sunk by each other under the impact of the tsunami. After the tsunami receded, all these broken ships were swept away.
A larger fishing boat was moored in Yokohama Port. Huge waves smashed it into pieces, and no one on board survived. The ports, dock facilities, and houses destroyed by the earthquake in Tokyo and Yokohama were also destroyed by the huge tsunami.
The waves plundered everything.
After the violent sea calmed down, beaches in Tokyo and other places turned into large garbage dumps. Roofs, bed boards, doors and windows of wooden houses, ship fragments and human corpses were everywhere. Similar things were floating on the sea. But these remnants
Objects are just what is left after the violent rage of the sea. A small part does not have time to recede with the tide, and most of them are swallowed up by the sea and have long since disappeared.
The massive tsunami caused by this earthquake sank more than 8,000 ships of all types, and all ports and docks in Tokyo, Yokohama, Yokosuka, Chiba and other places were paralyzed. These places experienced a real catastrophe.
Among these sunken ships were Japanese warships gathered in Tokyo Bay...
This is a disaster for Japan, and even more for the Japanese navy. Those sunk ships are not afraid of fighting the enemy fleet at sea, but they appear so small in the face of nature...
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At the Akasaka Imperial Palace in Tokyo, the 22-year-old Regent Hirohito held a grand state banquet to entertain envoys from various countries.
While the guests and hosts were chatting happily, a violent and sudden tremor came from deep underground; among the shaking earth, the clanking bowls and chopsticks and the stunned guests, Hirohito ignored the etiquette and staggered towards the garden outside the palace.
.He saw a picture like a landslide.
The newly completed 12-story Tokyo Tower was cut into two sections like a matchstick; countless tall buildings collapsed in an instant. Tokyo suddenly seemed low and empty, with only noisy crowds, bustling sounds and gradually
The flames soaring into the sky connect the island-like Akasaka Palace to the disaster-stricken Japan!
In the palace compound where aftershocks continued, Hirohito looked dull and was in a daze...
As the first earthquake-resistant building in Japanese history, the Akasaka Imperial Palace suffered only minor damage on this day; in the small town of Nikko hundreds of miles away, the emperor and empress were also safe and sound.
However, for the young crown prince, the disaster known as the "Great Kanto Earthquake" seemed like a lingering nightmare.
According to old legend, September 1st every year is a day of great disaster, just like the 13th plus Friday in the West.
Until 11:57, when the "Queen" blew its whistle again, American scholar and University of Colorado professor Cockerill was still waving frequently on the deck; and Joan Jensen, who came to see off her relatives and friends, also remembered that she was at the dock.
He kept waving handkerchiefs. Everything was still calm, calm and cheerful.
Just a minute later, Cockerill witnessed a terrifying, hallucinatory scene: the harbor suddenly rose, and the piers twisted and deformed like dough. He later recalled with horror:
"At the beginning, we were all confused. Later, someone shouted 'earthquake', 'earthquake', and we realized what happened. Looking in the distance, the sky above the city was covered with dust and mist..."
Compared with Cockerill, Joan Jensen was even more impressed. Later, she wrote in "Lookout" magazine: "The power from the ground is so great that we are thrown into the sky like ninepins.
After the wooden pillars collided with each other like in the play, we fell into the water... Both ends of the dock also sank into the water, and half of the seawall collapsed."
More than just wharves, docks, and seawalls? Almost at the same moment, a Western tourist witnessed a sensational scene: "A large forest rushed down from Danzig Mountain in an almost horizontal motion at a speed faster than a train, about sixty miles!"
"After crossing a village and a railway, it carried hundreds of villagers and countless boulders straight into the sea; a moment later, "several square miles of water turned blood red."
At 11:58, the moment the big earthquake hit, a train bound for Manazuru, carrying more than 200 people, slowly entered the Nekawa Station. Almost before it could stop, an overwhelming mudslide came.
After easily swallowing up the train, the mudslide slowly flowed toward Tokyo Bay, disappearing with it at the same time as several villages in Negawa Prefecture.
At this moment, from Yokohama Port, Tokyo Bay to the vast Sea of Japan, more than 8,000 ships sank in an instant, including a large number of warships.
In the Kanto Great Plains, where there are many towns and densely populated areas, all the land rises and falls like sea waves, with hills and mountains twisting rapidly.
In addition to the sudden collapse of more than 100,000 houses, this massive earthquake with a magnitude of 8.3 on the Richter scale and its epicenter in Sagami Bay, 90 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, shocked scientists from the Central Meteorological Observatory and Tokyo Imperial University: the seismometer first trembled wildly. , and then all the pointers were blown away; except for an imported instrument that could barely monitor, Japan could not find another intact seismograph.
Compared with more than 10,000 people who died instantly, Joan Jensen was quite lucky. After falling into the water and suffering some minor injuries, she caught up with the low tide.
In the swaying water, she reluctantly stood up and slowly waded onto land.
And in front of her horrified and bewildered eyes were countless towns and villages that had been reduced to rubble, and millions of earthquake victims who had no time to cry and were like headless flies.
A reporter from the "Tokyo Chronicle" wrote: "Some people ran into the street. Although they escaped from the earthquake demon, they encountered the fire demon again. They fell to the ground, covered with hot blood blisters. Compared with those who were For those who are left with only a handful of ashes, they may be lucky. How many lives are contained in those piles and pieces of ashes? No one knows..."
Thousands of people were reduced to coke in the fire. The reporter saw with his own eyes that "hundreds of escapees were burned to death" in the canal area. From here on, the smell of corpses lingered for a long time, and "dozens of survivors were burned to death there." You can smell it both inside and outside.”
In Tokyo and Yokohama, where aftershocks continue, fires have dominated countless neighborhoods.
At about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the fire swept through the entire Yokohama. This sleepless port, home to half a million citizens and known as "the paradise of foreigners" and "full of exotic atmosphere and adventurous spirit", has gradually become a melting pot!
Professor Cockerill saw thousands of escapees desperately jumping into the sea. They swam away from the scorching coast while shouting for help...
More Japanese people also think of that ancient legend:
In the depths of the Sea of Japan, there is a huge catfish; if the sun goddess is dissatisfied with the ruler of the world, the catfish will turn over and earthquakes will erupt. Only when the emperor abdicates immediately will the disaster stop and the aftershocks and fires pass. .
When a major earthquake strikes, almost every government's natural reaction is to inform the world about the disaster and appeal to the international community for assistance. But the Japanese do everything possible to prevent the spread of information. They interfere with the few radio stations that can still work.
Until they could no longer conceal the truth, they always denied that any abnormal events had occurred...
It’s more than just blocking news!
Henry Kinney, editor of "Pan Pacific" magazine, published a diary of the earthquake. This diary completely shows the incompetence, insolence, indifference, and cruelty of the officials, and the passivity, numbness, despair, and resignation of the Japanese people. It is Witnesses to the facial expressions of the 1923 Japanese earthquake.
He saw a devastated Kanto Plain that was almost a hell on earth: Most of the factories had been razed to the ground, and among the rubble and ruins, stumps and broken arms could be seen everywhere; in the once prosperous Kawasaki town, not a single surviving house was seen. ; And the survivors scattered around the dilapidated homes all had pale faces and dull expressions.