William Dana Reynolds Collection of Great Kanto Earthquake Photographs (Ms.2011.015)

Historical note

In August 1923, William Dana Reynolds, with his wife Vera Hunt Reynolds and their young daughter Helen embarked from Honolulu on the Japanese steamship Taiyo Maru, bound for Yokohama. While at sea, the ship experienced and survived a tsunami only to arrive, badly damaged, in Yokohama Bay on September 8th as witness to the destruction caused by the Great Kanto Earthquake. Fully aware of the risks involved, eight of the male passengers decided to leave the ship and enter the city. Dana Reynolds was among them. For the next few hours, and later, upon his return several days after the initial quake, he recorded a series of compelling images of the horror and devastation.