Japan marks 100 years since the devastating Great Kanto Quake, with disaster drills nationwide

People attend a memorial service at the Tokyo Metropolitan Memorial Hall to pray for the victims of the Great Kanto Earthquake on its 100th anniversary on Friday, September 1, 2023. - Photo from AFP

TOKYO (AP): Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida staged a televised disaster drill on Friday based on a fictional earthquake in the capital region, as his country marked the centennial of the real-life 1923 Great Kanto Quake that killed more than 100,000 people.

The 7.9-magnitude earthquake that struck the Sagamihara area southwest of Tokyo on Sept. 1, 1923, just before noon triggered a widespread inferno in the region, causing most of the victims to perish in the fire. The blaze destroyed nearly 300,000 Japanese paper-and-wood homes as the country suffered major social and economic damage just as it was seeking to modernize.