Kanto Earthquake Disaster Memorial Museum

The Memorial Museum for the Kanto Earthquake Disaster in north-eastern Tokyo is set in a quiet location, a few hundred metres north of the sumo stadium and on the opposite side of the river from Asakusabashi – in the same grounds as the Monument to the Victims of the Tokyo Air Raids and its own large Memorial Hall.

Officially established to serve as a memorial to the approximately 143,000 individuals who lost their lives, and the 104,000 injured in what was later to become known as The Great Kanto Earthquake; Kanto being the name of the plain atop which both Tokyo and Yokohama are situated, the structure today sits somewhat forlornly atop the site of the former Army Clothing Depot, which, when vacant in September 1923, was the site at which 38,000 men, women and children burnt to death following the magnitude 8 earthquake that rocked the city just before lunchtime – at 11:58 a.m.

Having evacuated to the relatively large plot of open land near the Sumida River to escape fires started throughout the city in the kitchens of houses preparing for lunch, those making it this far remained still as the flames approached in the tragically mistaken belief that the open land would protect them. It didn’t and they perished in a hurricane generated by the heat – trapped in by a river literally boiling on one side, and a wall of flame on the other.

Exhibits on the first floor of the museum include everyday household items used in Taisho-era (1912-1926) Japan such as pots, pans, cups and plates. All burnt or melted together they sit alongside fire damaged typewriters, bank notes and even contributions from the American Red Cross ‘Japan Day’ fund raiser held on September the 13th of the same year.

The second floor of the period brick building looks at the landscape after the quake, the contributions of artists of the day in recording the event, and offers a more scientific explanation of more recent quakes than was available in the 12th year of the reign of the Taisho Emperor.

Sadly, at no point is there any obvious reference to the organized hunting down and subsequent murder of thousands of Korean and Chinese believed somehow responsible for the quake; unfounded police-initiated rumors spreading as lethally as the flames told of Asian neighbors poisoning water supplies in the aftermath.

Outside the museum proper, and across a road where modern wooden buildings stand just inches apart from office blocks, several final exhibits can be seen in the form the fires left them.

Leaving something of a lump in the throat at the extreme power of the heat that could melt concrete and twist its iron innards, fuse piles of nails and buckle melted girders - a feeling of sadness about the site was compounded and multiplied tenfold when the majority of visitors to the area appear to be merely using the adjacent park as a place to entertain the kids or take a nap on the bench on a Sunday afternoon, ignoring the museum completely.

In this ignorance perhaps lies the biggest tragedy of all: the fact that throughout recorded history the Kanto area has been hit by a major quake every 60-70 years. The Great Kanto Earthquake was 85 years ago now but just who is ready for next time?