With their traditional charm and beautiful gardens the remaining older houses were much loved features of each Tokyo neighborhood. They were already disappearing steadily as Japan's very high estate death duties forced families to them for redevelopment.
The quake vastly accelerated this process.
Although I dont think many buildings in Tokyo had been badly damaged, the quake certainly demonstrated that older construction is less safe than modern. The quake got everyone thinking about how their home would stand up happen when the 'big one' hits Tokyo directly, and many owners of older buildings clearly didn't want to take the risk.
We quickly saw the impact in the months following the quake, as old houses and the lovely mature trees were torn down.
We saw the process close-up as the old house opposite was replaced by a 4-story apartment block. It wasn't a particularly nice house but the mature garden was lovely, and certainly much nicer than what replaced it. By May its death-warrant was posted.
In August the trees were cut down.
Then lot was being cleared.
And soon-after a ground-breaking ceremony was held for an ugly new 4-storey apartment block.
This process was repeated around the neighborhood until almost none of the old houses remained.
