New Sidelights on Japanese Quake Horror: Bartlesville Couple tell of Awful Scenes
Mr. and Mrs. Dana Reynolds Recite Harrowing Details of Experience
Some singularly striking and hitherto unpublished incidents in connection with the great Japanese disaster are told by Mr. and Mrs. Dana Reynolds of Bartlesville, who returned Monday from a trip to the Orient. Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds were a few miles off the Japanese coast when the earthquake occurred. An incident which seems hardly possible to the American mind, and which gives an insight into the Japanese customs and habits of absolute obedience instilled in the people was that Japanese warships maneuvering in the bay in sight of the city, refused to stop their maneuvers to go to the aid of their afflicted countrymen, and permitted American destroyers to be first to the field of disaster. The Japanese fleet calmly finished its maneuvers, then took up rescue work.
"We had orders in regard to the maneuvers," the officers said, "but we had no orders to stop."
A similar incident occurred on land. The prisoners confined in the jails and penitentiaries were left to burn like rats in a trap. "We had no orders to turn them loose," said the jailors.
"American people who read the newspaper accounts of the Japanese earthquake disaster cannot begin to realize the utter destruction of the land and the tragic condition of the people who survive," says Mr. Reynolds.
The Japanese ship Taiyo Maru on which Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds and their friends were passengers was held twelve miles off shore in the Yokohama Bay for four days, the ship captain fearing to approach nearer as it was not known just how far out into the bay the danger zone extended. But few of the passengers risked going ashore, as robbery and criminality, unchecked by law, were adding to the nightmare of horror into which the city of Tokio and other places affected, had been thrown.
Thirty-five hundred refugees were taken onto the Taiyo Maru. Pictures taken by Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds showed the refugees packed like sardines in the little boats making their way to the big ship.
"Daytime showed the most horrible scenes that can be imagined," says Mrs. Reynolds. "The bay littered with dead bodies floating around on the water and the ship swarming with refugees, starving, burned, and maimed. But at night it was beautiful, if one could forget what it meant, for the burning city made a beautiful scene." The passenger on the ship suffered privations as well as the refugees for they were rationed in water. Only one glass of water was allowed each passenger a day, and there was no water for bathing.
The Taiyo Maru finally docked at Kobe, but the passengers were unable to get any accommodations there, as all of the hotels had been turned into hospitals. Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds and their party were forced to ride four and a half hours inland before they could find a place to put up. They stopped at Kyoto, where they spent a week. Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, was described as most interesting. The tourists seldom penetrate this far inland, and a white person appearing on the streets of the city was the subject of great curiosity.
They spent a week here, then went on to China where they spent more than a month.
"When we returned by way of Japan six weeks water," said Mr. Reynolds, "there were still thousands of dead bodies floating in the bay and piled up in the devastated city. It seemed to me to show a surprising lack of system, but of course the first thought of the people was for saving those still alive and taking care of them."