Lilian May Miller in 1920. After a brief period at the State Department, she returned to Tokyo in 1920. She was in financial ruin after the Great Kanto earthquake of September 1, 1923, when many of her prints and paintings were destroyed. Miller lived with her parents in Seoul, Korea from 1923 until 1927 or 1928. While in Korea, Miller made prints and recuperated over a long period of time from a serious illness. In 1930 Miller returned to Japan and moved to Kyoto. Her father returned to the U.S. and became head of the Far Eastern Department in the State Department, Washington.
1923 Great Kantō earthquake in Yokosuka in compliance with the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. The earthquake damaged the "Amagi" beyond repair, leading it to be scrapped, and the unfinished fast battleship "Kaga" was converted into an aircraft carrier in its place. In contrast to London, where typhoid fever had been steadily declining since the 1870s, the rate in Tokyo remained high, more so in the upper-class residential northern and western districts than in the densely populated working-class eastern district. An explanation is the decline of waste disposal, which became particularly serious in the northern and western districts when traditional methods of waste disposal