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Marunouchi in flames

A view of the destruction in Yokohama

The 1923 Great Kantō earthquake (関東大震災, Kantō daishinsai^?) struck the Kantō plain on the Japanese main island of Honshū at 11:58 on the morning of September 1, 1923. The phrase "Great Kanto earthquake" usually means this earthquake, but is sometimes used to refer to the Ansei-Edo Earthquake of 1855 (安政の大地震). The quake was later estimated to have had a magnitude between 7.9 and 8.4 on the Richter scale, with its epicenter under Sagami Bay. Varied accounts hold that the duration was between 4 and 10 minutes.

It devastated Tokyo, the port city of Yokohama, surrounding prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, and Shizuoka, and caused widespread damage throughout the Kantō region.

Casualty estimates range from about 100,000 to 142,000 deaths, the latter figure including approximately 37,000 who went missing and were presumed dead. According to Japanese construction company Kajima Kobori Research report on September 2005, 105,000 confirmed dead in 1923 quake. ^[1][2][3]