 The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated stations present the Pacific story. In the mounting fury of world conflict, events in the Pacific are taking on ever greater importance. Here is the story of the Pacific and the millions of people who live around this greatest being. The drama of the people whose destiny is at stake in the Pacific war. Here, as another public service, is the tale of the war in the Pacific and its meaning to us and to the generations to come. Tokyo, target of the Pacific. But for the disaster of 1923, the city of Tokyo might be a better target for our bombers today. In less than one minute, the face and the character of Tokyo were changed. In that minute, the old Tokyo was destroyed. And from that minute, the new Tokyo of concrete and steel rose. Three minutes before 12 noon on September 1st, 1923, Tokyo was the typical sprawling Oriental city. Have you ever seen streets so crooked? No where. That is except in the mo-market of the Paris. These streets must have followed cow pads. They don't have cows in Japan. They don't. At least I've never seen any. I say, look, look at the gin rickshaws. The streets full of them. Let's speak our motorman out there. He's trying to get the rickshaws off the track. Look, he's not having much luck. So don't seem to bother him much. No, he's probably fighting a rickshaw traffic all day. There he goes. He's getting broke. Those street cars are like cracker boxes. They're so small and yet they're crowded to the guilt. Hey, what does that smell? What smell? There's a hundred of them. It must be the general smell of the city. Everything. The people cooking food, smoke, the canal. You know, the thing that's interesting to me is the low buildings. Look, look at those over there with that roof. Well, you have to remember Tokyo is really a city of villages grown together. Well, what do you know? An automobile. A Chevy. A touring car with a fabric top and side curtain. That's the only thing here that looks like home. Look, he's having the same trouble as that motorman. Trying to get through the rickshaw traffic. They don't pay any attention to him. That driver looks as if he's afraid of that car. Yeah, he's got a stranglehold on the wheel. Can't see how a guy could get through these narrow streets filled with rickshaws no matter how he held that wheel. Oh, they're getting out of his way. Yes, but look what he's got ahead of him. The whole crooked street is just as crowded as it is here. Nothing like Main Street back home, is it? No, this is a fire trap if ever I saw one. Oh, come on, let's get along and have a look. Before September 1st, 1923, Tokyo had been burned down so many times that its great fires came to be known as the Flower of Yedo. Yedo was the original name of the city. The narrow crooked streets at three minutes before 12 noon on this fateful day were throng with busy people. You mean the theatergoers sit on the floor? Yes, you'll see the spaces on the floor are positioned by those high footboards. Oh, they sit with their feet under them, men. Well, yes, they are quite comfortable. Say, what are those people doing over there? Cooking right here in the theater? They are making tea. They bring their equipment along with them? Yes, they eat and drink as they watch the performance. Great idea. Yes, except that the whole place is filled with smells of cooking and burning charcoal. We also have theaters like yours. Oh, with regular seats? Well, the seats can be adjusted so that the people can sit on them the same way they sit on the floor, with their feet under them. Look, don't you have any seats where a fellow can just sit down? Along the Ginza, the main shopping district, the shops were entirely open to the street, no doors and no windows. You see, wooden shutters are set up at night to close off the store from the street. The most luxurious hotel in the city was the Imperial Hotel. This hotel was designed by an American, Frank Lloyd Wright. Yeah, that looks something like America. Very strange hotel, fantastic. In what way? It floats on mud. What? Very fantastic, but very modern, very modern. The Imperial Hotel was modern, but most of the city around it was almost medieval. The narrow, crooked streets twisted between wooden, inflammable structures. And rising impressively above all this was the Imperial Palace. Is there really a moat of water around the palace? Oh, yes. It is two miles long. And outside of this is another moat. Two of them, eh? The whole structure is encroached in that great wall you see there. Not much chance of anyone getting in there, is there? You know, the unusual thing about this is that the palace here is right in the heart of Tokyo. Yes. No, no. Put your camera down. Taking pictures here is forbidden. All I want to do is get a picture of the wall and the palace rising above it. It is not permitted. No. Let us go on. There are other sites to see. The people of Tokyo, the Emperor, his ministers, the politicians, the military men, clerks, hawkers, rickshaw men. All were going about their routine tasks at 3 minutes to 12 noon. One minute later the disaster struck. The wooden portions had gone up like tinder. Tokyo lay in a deadly calm. Workers quietly dug in the wreckage. The cries of the dying and mutilated were gone. The city lay in ruin. One of the few buildings still standing was the Imperial Hotel. Around it were miles of desolation. But soon the Japanese were busy planning the new city. Here is the information, gentlemen. This was a Japanese scientist. Our research reveals that this area, the site of the city of Tokyo, suffers a serious earthquake about every 70 years. Oh, let me see. Our last bed earthquake was 1855. Yes, that is 68 years ago. And between times there has been lesser earthquakes. And more important is the fact that our research shows that for centuries Tokyo has had a bad earthquake every 100 years. This can mean only one thing. We cannot rebuild Tokyo as it was. We must lay out a new city. That was the decision. The old Tokyo was gone. A new Tokyo, a modern city, would be raised up in its place. It would be as modern as any city in Europe or America. While thousands upon thousands of workers cleared away the debris, the architects of the new Tokyo were busy with their planning. The creation of the new city was placed in the hands of an official reconstruction board. How wide must these streets be? They must be wide enough so that flames cannot reap across them. Would you say that flames could reap, shall we say, 75 feet? Normally they could not. I should say that 75 feet wide should be a minimum for our trunk lines. Yes, that is the minimum. And these trunk lines here, these main ones, these will be how wide? They will be 140 feet wide. Oh, good. Before the earthquake, our streets occupied only 12% of the area of the city. Under this new plan, they will occupy about a third. The trunk lines were arranged to cross at right angles. The blocks were laid out to be oblong. The lots also oblong. The lesser streets connecting with the trunk lines were laid out to be from 38 to 74 feet wide. Here, you see, this is how these streets are laid out. Who is? Like a great chess board, exactly. There will be ample space in these streets for traffic. And at the same time, should fire break out in any one block or in any one section, it could be isolated there and brought under control before it spread to other sections. We must never have another great fire. The engineers went to Tokyo to consult with the Japanese. There they saw an entire city, one of the largest cities in the world, being laid out and built. Parks? Oh, yes. We will have many of them. Yes, I see here. You're planning three large parks. That's wise. Yes, three large ones and 52 small ones. You see them here, under here, and here. Excellent. These are canals here. Oh, yes. We have many canals. And for that, Tokyo is called the Venice of the Far East. Are you planning new bridges over all of them? Although most of them. We will build a 400 fireproof bridge so that if fire should come again, our people will not be trapped. The streets cleared, work was started on the building of the new city. Problems were to mount upon problems. More than 300,000 building lots had to be readjusted. And my lot is not the same shape now as it was before. And besides, I now have less rent. Yes. Your lot is now rectangular in shape. All the lots are. And as for your having less rent, that is also true. But you have the advantage of having a better street and better planning around you. And that will make your property worth even more than before. You see, all of us must do our part for a better Tokyo. The cost of the project was to be at least one billion yen, possibly more. And as complications developed, the indication was that it would certainly cost more. Thousands of workers toiled in the streets. You see, while we are digging up the streets, we are leaving space for the telephone and the power line. That means that you are virtually digging up the entire city, even the sections not wrecked? Oh yes, we must. How many of your old water mains and sewers could you use? Not very many. They were in the wrong places in our new layout. Many of them would be under new buildings or would go in the wrong direction. So you had to relocate both systems almost entirely? Not entirely. For neither Tokyo nor Yokohama had a complete sewer system before this. Well, when this underground work is done, you'll have some of the finest and widest streets in the world. We are planning high-speed streetcars for them. Transportation is an important matter in Tokyo. You're not concerned about handling your transportation with streets this wide, are you? No. There is a little chance of congestion. For our city, unlike your American city, will not grow tall, but rather will grow wide. What the Japanese engineer meant was that no building can be taller than the Imperial Palace, which is eight stories high. This means that there cannot be a concentration of people in Tokyo comparable to the concentration of people in the business districts of the skyscraper cities of America. Also, it means that there are no very tall buildings to be shaken down in another earthquake. Tokyo reverberated with the sounds of buildings, of men and machines at work. This is the Maranuchi building they are constructing here. It will be Japan's largest office building. And as you'll see, it will be as modern as any building of yours in the United States. This is the Naya Mbashi, the financial district. It is Tokyo's Wall Street, and it will have all the facilities of your Wall Street in New York. This is the new Ginza, the shopping district. It will be fireproof under foreign style, and it will cost 1,800,000 yen. You see, we are putting in rich colored sidewalks to make it one of the most attractive shopping districts in the world. But behind the plans for the building of this modern commercial city were other plans. These were the plans of the Japanese military. If the streets were laid out so that flames could not leap across them, and so that traffic over them could not be handled with the greatest speed, they were also laid out with other things in mind. While Tokyo still lay in ruins in 1923, and before the plans had been worked out to recreate the city, the Japanese were thinking of defense against enemy bombings. Obamas can be more destructive to Tokyo than earthquakes on the file. This was General Uyahara. It is not conceivable that any enemy could attack Tokyo by establishing an air base within the Japanese Empire. It is possible that Tokyo could be bombed either by planes from ships built to carry airplanes or by long-range Obamas. This was General Uyahara speaking in 1923. Such enemy bombing of Tokyo could make this earthquake and fire by comparison seem unimportant. Do you think General Uyahara and such Obamas could overcome our interceptor squadrons of aircraft? You have only to look back to the World War. Both Paris and London were bombed by the Germans, and this is what we must expect in the case of a war. You will propose some manner of installations to withstand these bombings? I demand the construction of underground compartments, permanent installations. General Uyahara thought in terms of steel and concrete, of strong buildings, of bomb-proof dugouts. His influence was to go far, how far few westerners were to know. Steel and concrete went into many buildings to make them fire-proof. This city will pay you, as one who is constructing a building, 50% of the difference between the cost of a fire-proof building and a structure that is not. Do I understand the city will pay half of the cost of making my building a fire-proof structure? Yes, 50% of the cost above that of an ordinary building. We will accept. We will make our building a fire-proof structure. The sections of fire-proof structures were built. In these sections, only fire-proof structures could be put out. Where steel and concrete were too expensive, other materials were used. And out of the wreckage rose a city that would not easily be destroyed by earthquake, or fire, or bombing. In 1930, the reconstruction was completed. In celebration, all Tokyo turned out. Two million visitors from the countryside came in for the festival. The spacious streets were decked with gay, red-and-white fronting, and hung with colorful lanterns. Most of these people seem to be as amazed as I am. Well, for most of them, it's their first trip to Tokyo. But it's mine, too. But you've seen buildings something like these in Chicago and New York, yes. And I never expected to see them in Japan. No, I suppose not. I say, you've been over here so long now, you've sort of forgotten your first impressions. Just seven years since the earthquake. Or there's something for you to write about over there. That old man over there is a farmer. Probably his first trip to the city. Oh, yes. Look at the wonder in his eyes. He can't believe it. You see, he's coming with his old-fashioned Japanese clothes. And look at that old woman. She must be 90. They all take an interest in the new city. Remarkable. In another part of the city, 60,000 dignitaries, all dressed in frock coats and holding silk hats in their hands, stood in silence before their emperor. One of the ministers climbed a long flight of steps to the platform on which the emperor stood. He bowed from the waist, once, twice, three times. Then he stepped back, and bowed once more, and then back down the long flight of steps. Then the emperor read an acknowledgement of the recreation of his city of Tokyo. When he finished, a signal was given, and with one voice, the 60,000 dignitaries responded. One day! One day! And women and children swarmed over the new city, marbling at all they saw. They swarmed through the Ginza. When the celebration was over, Tokyo settled down. And in the 30s, world travelers came to be familiar with its streets and shops. Well, so this is the Ginza, isn't it? Yes, this is it. Nothing quite like it anywhere in the world. Hey, hey, look at that. Well, what is that seller riding that bicycle, an acrobat? No, there are so many bicycles in Tokyo that nearly everyone is a pretty good rider. He's riding without hands. Riding through that crowd of people. Look at that seller. Riding right through that traffic, carrying a stack of dishes on a tray. Well, come on, let's get along. Hey, there doesn't seem to be anything but tea shops and beer shops down in this section. That's one of the characteristic things about Tokyo. It is probably more restaurants and places to eat and drink than any place in the world. They make me think of the cafes of Paris. And they're a great deal of life. And they're always crowded. They're really part of the spirit of Tokyo these shops. And without them, well, it just wouldn't be Tokyo. Tokyo changed little during the invasion of Manchuria. But after Japan went to war with China in 1937, then Tokyo began to change. From that time on, the drain of the war began to fail. There was less food. The armies in the field had to be fed. And the war against China supported. The structures of steel and concrete stood out against the sky, symbols of strength. And the people who built them drew their belts tighter and became more grim. This is incredible. Isn't there any money to clean up these slums? Japan is at war. I've never seen anything like this. People living in such crowded and non-sanitary conditions. Yes, and the great danger is that disease could get a start here and see through all Tokyo. How can they have these beautiful cherry festivals here? At the same time, have these terrible slums. Tokyo is a city of contrasts. Many Japanese wear Western business clothes during the day. The same kind of coats and hats and ties you wear. Work in modern Western offices. But at night, they go home. They go off their Western clothes and put on flowing Japanese clothes. And live there about the same as Japanese lived a couple of centuries ago. As the war touched the lives of the individual, it touched Tokyo's famous shops. Where once had been pleasant tea shops and restaurants, now were closed doors and blank windows. But behind those closed doors and in thousands of homes was activity of another kind. Oh, these pieces are ready. Take them next door. Yes, yes. Bring up those parts for the next assembly. In effect, what you've got here is a modern assembly line. We have had it a long time. One unit in each place. I see. You do one operation right here in your own place. And the next operation is done next door. That is right. We save space. Oh, save time too. You don't have to go to work. But having part of a factory in your home. Well, isn't that a little inconvenient? Everyone works. The children as well. Each has a part to perform. And out of these home factories come intricate pieces to be assembled with other pieces. Which assemblies are put together with other assemblies. The home factories hum long hours and out of them for years have come first. The products to be sold in other lands. And in recent years, the parts of Japan's war machine. And when the war with the United Nations came, Tokyo's big industries were roaring with activity. And in the piles of American experts were detailed accounts of these industries. Now, look at this map. You see, Japan's factories are located in these three industrial areas. Here in the Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto area. Over here, around Nagoya. And here, around Tokyo and Yokohama. See? Now, here in the Tokyo Yokohama area. This right here is the Tokyo Arsenal. Do you have the details on that? Yes, sir. In the last several years, special machinery has been built for this arsenal. Our information is that the output of small arms is to be increased. And that a new machine gun is being developed here. And here is the Tokyo Rayon Company. Oh yes, that plant has had a great expansion program on it. Probably doing important work there. And here, here is the big shipbuilding plant at Kawasaki near Tokyo. See it? And these points here, here, here. These are airplane plants. Without this camouflage by now. Tokyo's industries are pretty well scattered. But we know their locations. And that is what is important. By the time of the Do Little Raid, many Japanese leaders spoke of Tokyo as being impregnable for bombing. They pointed to their steel and concrete buildings, their wide streets, and to the subways, which, as in London, could be used for air raid shelters. The bombers took them by surprise. No one is permitted here. How much damage was done by the bomb? What bomb? The bombs that were dropped by the American planes. What American planes? The planes that came over. The ones I saw. You saw no planes. Now go. No one is permitted here. Go. I know I saw planes. I saw the explosions. Do Little Bombers spread across the skies, deliver their eggs and spread away. Fire bombs fell with the explosives, yet so effectively did the sensors clamp down that almost nothing was said about it. You saw the American bombers too, did you not? Yes, I saw them. And I heard the siren. Everyone did. But how much damage was done? No one seems to know. You saw as much as I did, where the bombs exploded. Yes, and our neighbor himself slayed the fire of a fire bomb. There were many fire bombs. Why was there not something in the newspaper about it? You know as well as I. They have been telling us for years that we could not be bombed. They have told us that the American air force was nothing. Look at this in the newspaper. It is about the American friars. The ones who bombed us? You must not keep on insisting that we were bombed. What does it say about the American friars? It says that they have been captured in China. Then I did see them. They were here. It would be best if you did not talk too much or ask too many questions. No one but the high officials knew the extent of the damage. The Japanese who actually saw the planes, those who saw where the bombs fell, and those who were intimately concerned with the effects of the bombings, learned not to talk about it. In an amazingly short time it was no longer mentioned. The effect of the bombing was to steal the people to what lies ahead, so the Japanese high command knows that Tokyo is as close to being impregnable to bombs as any city in the world. We have long been experimenting with steel and stone construction. We know what we can expect of it. The steel and stone have gone into Tokyo. The enemy will learn the resistance of our cities. But there are other aspects that are equally important to the United Nations, and these the United Nations know well. Tokyo is a nerve center of the Japanese war effort. One of these days the Allies will be marching down the Ginza. The Allied troops will be having their pictures taken in front of them while an Uchi building in the Nihonbashi. Because of its construction and its defenses, Tokyo is perhaps capable of taking a tremendous pasting, and it is the site of the Imperial Palace. But it is not necessarily the most important target in the Pacific. Its industries are scattered. Conceivably, the war in the Pacific could go on after Tokyo falls. The war against Japan could be resolved far from the modern steel and concrete of the Ginza. You have been listening to the Pacific story presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations as a public service to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the crosscurrents of life in the Pacific Basin. For a reprint of this Pacific story program, send 10 cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. It is written and directed by Arnold Marquess. The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Palusso. Your narrator, Gaine Whitman. This program came to you from Hollywood. This is the National Broadcasting Company.