1923 Great Kantō earthquake divine punishment to admonish the Japanese people for their self-centered, immoral, and extravagant lifestyles. In the long run, the response to the disaster was a strong sense that Japan had been given an unparalleled opportunity to rebuild the city, and to rebuild Japanese values. In reconstructing the city, the nation, and the Japanese people, the earthquake fostered a culture of catastrophe and reconstruction that amplified discourses of moral degeneracy and national renovation in interwar Japan. After the earthquake, Gotō Shinpei organized a reconstruction plan of Tokyo with modern networks of roads, trains, and public services. Parks were placed all over
1923 Great Kantō earthquake committed In the wake of the earthquake against thousands of ethnic Korean civilians (Zainichi) and Japanese socialists. The murders were carried out by right-wing groups such as elements of the Imperial Japanese Army, police and vigilantes in Tokyo and Yokohama. This earthquake devastated Tokyo, the port city of Yokohama, and the surrounding prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, and Shizuoka, and caused widespread damage throughout the Kantō region. The earthquake's force was so great that in Kamakura, over from the epicenter, it moved the Great Buddha statue, which weighs about , almost two feet. Estimated casualties totaled about 142,800 deaths, including about