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Contemporary Asia in the World
The Great Kantō Earthquake and the Chimera of National Reconstruction in Japan
In September 1923, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake devastated eastern Japan, killing more than 120,000 people and leaving two million homeless. Using a rich array of source material, J. Charles Schencking tells for the first time the graphic tale of Tokyo's destruction and rebirth. In emotive prose, he documents how the citizens of Tokyo experienced this unprecedented calamity and explores the ways in which it rattled people's deep-seated anxieties about modernity. While explaining how and why the disaster compelled people to reflect on Japanese society, he also examines how reconstruction encouraged the capital's inhabitants to entertain new types of urbanism as they rebuilt their world.
Some residents hoped that a grandiose metropolis, reflecting new values, would rise from the ashes of disaster-ravaged Tokyo. Many, however, desired a quick return of the city they once called home. Opportunistic elites advocated innovative state infrastructure to better manage the daily lives of Tokyo residents. Others focused on rejuvenating society--morally, economically, and spiritually--to combat the perceived degeneration of Japan. Schencking explores the inspiration behind these dreams and the extent to which they were realized. He investigates why Japanese citizens from all walks of life responded to overtures for renewal with varying degrees of acceptance, ambivalence, and resistance. His research not only sheds light on Japan's experience with and interpretation of the earthquake but challenges widespread assumptions that disasters unite stricken societies, creating a "blank slate" for radical transformation. National reconstruction in the wake of the Great Kanto Earthquake, Schencking demonstrates, proved to be illusive.
Some residents hoped that a grandiose metropolis, reflecting new values, would rise from the ashes of disaster-ravaged Tokyo. Many, however, desired a quick return of the city they once called home. Opportunistic elites advocated innovative state infrastructure to better manage the daily lives of Tokyo residents. Others focused on rejuvenating society--morally, economically, and spiritually--to combat the perceived degeneration of Japan. Schencking explores the inspiration behind these dreams and the extent to which they were realized. He investigates why Japanese citizens from all walks of life responded to overtures for renewal with varying degrees of acceptance, ambivalence, and resistance. His research not only sheds light on Japan's experience with and interpretation of the earthquake but challenges widespread assumptions that disasters unite stricken societies, creating a "blank slate" for radical transformation. National reconstruction in the wake of the Great Kanto Earthquake, Schencking demonstrates, proved to be illusive.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
400 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
About the author
J. Charles Schencking
4 books2 followersJ. Charles Schencking is a historian of Japan. He is currently professor of history in the Department of History at the University of Hong Kong.
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January 22, 2024
Having been impressed by Schencking's study of propaganda and the Imperial Japanese Navy, I've been meaning to read this monograph for a while; I now regret that it's taken me this long to do so. Right up front, Schencking announces his skepticism that natural disasters, as traumatic as they can be, have the potential for great transformation. Yes, individuals with a vision may see a great opportunity, but the reality is that the survivors are likely to be most interested in resuming their normal lives as soon as possible. Much of the politics of reconstruction after this particular disaster were driven by this reality.
Before one gets to that point though, Schencking gives one a blow-by-blow accounting of the horrible day, which saw more than 100,000 people die, mostly in the resulting firestorm. It is somewhat chilling to read that there were Japanese observers before the event who saw Tokyo as a disaster waiting to happen; either as a "natural" event or by strategic aerial attack.
However, in one revelation, it turns out that the most shocking aspect of this disaster to the Japanese authorities was the vigilante action against people of Korean descent. Just one of the many things that led politicians and moralists to wonder what was wrong with the Japanese spirit. This is along with hand-wringing about lack of respect for authority, rampant consumerism (seen as decadence), and supposedly loose morals; the Japanese elites of the time were not doing better with the syndromes of urban industrial modernity than anyone else.
The real guts of this book though, are when Schencking gets into the debate over how to rebuild Tokyo, and what it says about Japanese politics and society. To crudely summarize, there was the argument between those who saw a great opportunity to give Japan a truly world-class capital city, and this should happen regardless of the cost, and those who were prepared to limit reconstruction to what the over-heated Japanese fiscal situation could support. This is not to mention the axis between those who saw Tokyo as being the transcendental center of Japan, and those who did not believe that the city's reconstruction should go forward at the radical sacrifice of the interests of the rest of the Japanese population; particularly the ever-more impoverished rural communities.
In the end, afflicted areas of Tokyo did see infrastructure improvements, rationalized property boundaries, and the creation of an appropriate memorial to the dead. However, the vision of providing Tokyo with more green space, for aesthetics, public health, and as a bulwark against fire, did not come to pass. The requisite money simply wasn't there to buy up enough land. This became a matter of much regret come 1945.
In any case, Schencking writes well and this study is highly accessible.
Before one gets to that point though, Schencking gives one a blow-by-blow accounting of the horrible day, which saw more than 100,000 people die, mostly in the resulting firestorm. It is somewhat chilling to read that there were Japanese observers before the event who saw Tokyo as a disaster waiting to happen; either as a "natural" event or by strategic aerial attack.
However, in one revelation, it turns out that the most shocking aspect of this disaster to the Japanese authorities was the vigilante action against people of Korean descent. Just one of the many things that led politicians and moralists to wonder what was wrong with the Japanese spirit. This is along with hand-wringing about lack of respect for authority, rampant consumerism (seen as decadence), and supposedly loose morals; the Japanese elites of the time were not doing better with the syndromes of urban industrial modernity than anyone else.
The real guts of this book though, are when Schencking gets into the debate over how to rebuild Tokyo, and what it says about Japanese politics and society. To crudely summarize, there was the argument between those who saw a great opportunity to give Japan a truly world-class capital city, and this should happen regardless of the cost, and those who were prepared to limit reconstruction to what the over-heated Japanese fiscal situation could support. This is not to mention the axis between those who saw Tokyo as being the transcendental center of Japan, and those who did not believe that the city's reconstruction should go forward at the radical sacrifice of the interests of the rest of the Japanese population; particularly the ever-more impoverished rural communities.
In the end, afflicted areas of Tokyo did see infrastructure improvements, rationalized property boundaries, and the creation of an appropriate memorial to the dead. However, the vision of providing Tokyo with more green space, for aesthetics, public health, and as a bulwark against fire, did not come to pass. The requisite money simply wasn't there to buy up enough land. This became a matter of much regret come 1945.
In any case, Schencking writes well and this study is highly accessible.
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