Temblor for Tojo?

"According to the law of averages Japan should not be far from another serious earthquake." So last month spoke Father Joseph Lynch, S.J., famed Fordham University seismologist. He pointed out that a major Japanese earthquake occurred in 1933 and another in 1923. Will there be one in 1943?

He went on to tell how bad Japanese quakes can be.

"In 1891, the main island of Japan was practically broken in two. Cracks were observed clear across the island from the Sea of Japan on the left to the Pacific Ocean on the right. In this quake about 8,000 lives were lost. Tokyo was the scene of the next big quake in 1923. The loss of life in this one was about 100,000. The quake actually occurred some miles offshore but was of sufficient intensity to cause slipping along the coast amounting to six feet in places. ... A third big quake, in 1927, occurred on the main island some 100 miles south of the 1891 quake. . . . Only 3,000 lives were lost since it was not a thickly populated region. The main belt of Japanese quakes runs along the Pacific side of the main island some distance offshore."

Japan's offshore quakes have churned up water waves that have done terrible damage. On the small island of Sanriku alone, the slamming seas killed 30,000 in 1896, 3,000 in 1933.

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