Great Kantō Earthquake

September 1, 1923

A magnitude-7.9 earthquake struck the Kantō plain at noon, when charcoal cooking fires were lit across Tokyo and Yokohama. Firestorms consumed the wooden cities. A hundred and forty thousand died, many in the firestorm that swept the Rikugun Honjo clothing depot. Japan rebuilt Tokyo as a modern city. The old Edo was gone in an afternoon.