No two calamities are alike, yet the needs of victims vary only in scale, not in kind.
This is what occurred to me as I read Itoko Kitahara's fascinating book, "Kanto Daishinsai no Shakaishi" (The Social History of the Great Kanto Earthquake), published last year by Asahi Shimbun Publications.
Sept. 1 marks the 89th anniversary of this immense tragic event that killed 105,385 people in the Kanto region and destroyed or irreparably damaged 372,659 homes. Tsunami as high as 10 meters contributed to the damage: 6 meters high at Atami in Shizuoka Prefecture; 8 at Susaki, now a part of Tokyo's Koto ward; 9.3 at Aihama in Chiba Prefecture.