Abstract
WHAT is described as the greatest typhoon on record struck the southern coast of Japan early on September 21. A week later, the Earthquake Research Institute sent several of its members to the district, and their reports on various features of the typhoon are included in a special volume of the Institute's Bulletin (Suppl. vol. 2, 302 pp. and 34 pis.). All the nine memoirs are written in Japanese, but, with two exceptions (mainly in tabular form), they are followed by summaries in English. The typhoon was generated at sea, in about lat. 11 ° N., long. 141 ° E., on September 13. It was then weak, and travelled slowly towards the north-west. A week later, near the Ryukyu Islands, its course changed to northeast. When it reached Sikoku, on the southern coast of Japan, its centre showed a pressure of 22.4 in., probably a record for land stations. The typhoon then passed over the adjoining districts, causing much damage to houses and trees, but it is worthy of notice that some earthquake-proof school buildings withstood a gale of 134 miles an hour. The main damage occurred in the coastal districts, and was due partly to the sea-waves, or kaze-tunami, raised by the typhoon and partly to a sudden rise of the sea that at Osaka ranged from 9.5 to 18.7 ft., and at Kobe from 5.8 to 6.5 ft. Among the causes of this abnormal rise, Mr. II. Takahasi includes a suction-like action on the sea-water due to the low pressure in the centre of the typhoon-path and the drift of the water to the coast by the force of the winds. Farther on, the typhoon passed over Lake Biwa, generating seiches with amplitudes of 10 in. and a rise of the same amount in the northern half of the lake, due again to the drift of the water. Even in the neighbourhood of Tokyo, the sea-level rose by about 4 ft.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
The Typhoon of September 21, 1934, in Japan. Nature 136, 544 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136544a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136544a0