"Reducing Much of What Remained to Ashes"

"Yet it should also be remembered that pouring money and supplies into a stricken country or region is no guarantor of stability. The 1923 quake kicked off a national effort to rebuild Tokyo into a world-class city. Yet it also whipped up nationalist hysteria, with vigilante bands roving the lawless countryside, murdering thousands of Koreans. Xenophobic newspapers published accusations that American relief teams were trying to humiliate the Japanese, putting a quick end to the era of good feeling. The army declared martial law and began a steady erosion of democracy, culminating in its expansion into China and the outbreak of World War II."

Joshua Hammer at The New York Times recalls Japan's 1923 Great Kantō earthquake.

Also in The New York Times, James Glanz and Norimitsu Onishi credit building codes for saving lives during the recent Japanese quake.