Inventions led to expeditions both in Hawaii and in distant lands during the decade of the twenties, some by invitation, some to offer assistance at disasters, and some for the natural extension of my own work. On September 1, 1923, came the big earthquake at Tokyo. With Mrs. Jaggar, I was permitted to land in Japan and make a study of the effects of the disaster. The destruction of Tokyo and Yokohama was a final, sad tragedy for Omori, who for years had worked to protect the Emperor and Japan by studying earthquake forecasts for Tokyo and by conducting research in earthquake-proof engineering. It was a cruel commentary that the disaster came while he was attending a science congress in Australia, particularly as the great destruction of life was occasioned by fire and typhoon winds. But Omori’s organization handled the seismic event admirably. Omori returned at once, but almost immediately died. We steamed into Yokohama harbor, were welcomed by Captain Gatesford Lincoln U. S. N. and his destroyer flotilla. We went on board his flagship, and were sent in his launch to the broken jetties of Yokohama, where we found no custom house or police. We walked up to the camp of United States marines, amid the wreckage of the United States Consulate, where the Consul had been killed. Yokohama, which I had known well in 1909 and 1914, was a tumble of ruins; and the long Bund with its splendid waterfront structures, including the Grand Hotel, was a heap of rubble. My classmate Purington, a mining geologist who had been staying at the Grand with his family escaped with one child and went back to rescue his wife. A second shock brought down more masonry and crushed him. We were given a tent and allowed to mess with the marines, and next day we crowded into a train for Tokyo. It was packed to the doors and had people seated on the roof. We were warned by Americans to dress as roughly as possible, as the populace was on edge, and foreigners must not appear to be tourists. By great good luck we got into the Imperial Hotel which had withstood the shake and fire, though it was considerably damaged. We visited the Honjo district of the river bottom, where the damage was at maximum, and we saw the remains of a pile of corpses, clothes, and household goods in one small yard where 30,000 people had been incinerated. Fire had closed in from all sides, and the shrieking mob of men, women, and children piled up on top of each other, amid handcarts and clothing bundles--kindling which added fuel to the horror. The mayor of Tokyo sent us in a small steamer to the island of Oshima, on which is the volcano Mihara, close to the earthquake center. We climbed up and looked down into a glowing pit which was making no lava outflow at the time, though Mihara is famous for basalt flows.