---
node: great_kanto_earthquake
type: event
slug: great_kanto_earthquake
title: "Great Kanto Earthquake"
lead: "At 11:58 on September 1, 1923, a magnitude-7.9 earthquake originating in Sagami Bay struck the Kanto plain. About 105,000 people were left dead or missing, most of them killed by fire."
published: 2026-07-09
updated: 2026-07-09
image_file: great_kanto_earthquake.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kanto-daishinsai.jpg"
image_author: "Unknown"
image_license: "Public domain"
---

## What happened

At 11:58 on September 1, 1923, a magnitude-7.9 earthquake originating in Sagami Bay struck the Kanto plain. Tokyo and Yokohama were devastated mainly by fire; at the site of a former army clothing depot in Honjo, a firestorm killed tens of thousands of people in a single place. The dead and missing totaled about 105,000.

Amid false rumors, mobs — and in some cases authorities — killed thousands of Koreans, as well as Chinese and Japanese who were mistaken for Koreans.

## Background

The earthquake struck at lunchtime, when cooking flames were burning across the cities, and winds at the edge of a typhoon drove the fires.

## Consequences

Martial law was declared, and Goto Shinpei led an ambitious reconstruction that reshaped Tokyo. The disaster became a foundation of modern disaster planning in Japan — September 1 is now Disaster Prevention Day — and an enduring reminder of how disaster can unleash violence against minorities.