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 water demon triggers the 1923 earthquake. The josei manga "Akatsuki no Aria" (by Michiyo Akaishi) features the earthquake in volume 8. Several places frequented by the protagonist Aria Kanbara, like her boarding school and the house of the rich Nishimikado clan that she is an illegitimate member of, become shelters for the wounded and the homeless. Aria's birth mother is severely injured by debris and dies few later, and this triggers a subplot about Aria's own heritage. In the 2013 animated film by director Hayao Miyazaki, "The Wind Rises", the protagonist Jiro Horikoshi is traveling to Tokyo by train to