1923 Great Kantō earthquake space in which an estimated 38,000 people were killed by a single fire tornado. The park houses a Buddhist-style memorial hall/museum, a memorial bell donated by Taiwanese Buddhists, a memorial to the victims of World War II Tokyo air raids, and a memorial to the Korean victims of the vigilante killings. In Yasunari Kawabata's 1930 novel "The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa" several chapters deal with the Great Kantō earthquake. In "Japan Sinks", in one scene in the book, due to the fast-moving subduction of the Pacific and Eurasian plates, the Sagami Trough ruptures in a magnitude-8.5 earthquake, killing several million
1923 Great Kantō earthquake Tokyo as refuge spots, and public buildings were constructed with stricter standards than private buildings to accommodate refugees. The outbreak of World War II and subsequent destruction severely limited resources. Frank Lloyd Wright received credit for designing the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, to withstand the quake, although in fact the building was damaged by the shock. The destruction of the US embassy caused Ambassador Cyrus Woods to relocate the embassy to the hotel. Wright's structure withstood the anticipated earthquake stresses, and the hotel remained in use until 1968. The unfinished battlecruiser "Amagi" was in drydock being converted into an aircraft carrier