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...MINUTES TO NOON (191 pp.) -Noel F. Busch-Simon & Schuster...
Remember), Author Noel F. Busch addresses himself in detail to the cause of the lamp's swaying-and the fearful hours and days that followed it. It was "the beginning of the Kanto Daishinsai, or Great Kanto Earthquake Disaster, which was not only the most destructive earthquake ever recorded but also, in all probability, the most serious natural calamity in the long and frequently calamitous history of the human race." The earthquake and the succeeding tornado-whipped fires killed an estimated 140,000 persons in Tokyo and nearby Yokohama. The great fires; known historically as the "Flowers...
...TIME associate editor in the '30s and a LIFE senior writer in the '40s, Busch visited Japan to interview survivors of the disaster. Even so, he has had to pad his pages with ruminations about earthquake phenomena and Frank Lloyd Wright's design of the Imperial Hotel, which withstood the shock and created a legend that made the architect's international reputation. The legend neglected to point out that 99% of Tokyo's buildings actually rode out the tremors, if not the fire...
...Busch uses the same narrative style adopted by John Hersey in Hiroshima: he follows one man or a family through their ordeal. But Two Minutes to Noon has little of the quiet compassion that made Hersey's book so compelling. In fact, from time to time Busch seems to be studying ants struggling in a bottle. He describes the plight of the Japanese crowding onto the same bridge from opposite sides of the river as "an interesting tactical development." Many who sought refuge on the bridge died there...
...main character of the book, whom Busch treats with complete sympathy, is Dr. Eikichi Ikeguchi, who was trapped with his wife and three children. In a matter of minutes his family was dead...