When the first Imperial Hotel opened in Tokyo in 1890, it was a wooden, three-storied, Western-styled building.
Its successor, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opened in 1923, the day before the Great Kanto Earthquake devastated much of the city.
Stories are legion of Tetsuzo Inumaru, then general manager, who organized his staff to save the hotel from fire, and to help guests, employees, and refugees in the streets.