🇬🇷✝️🇦🇲 Rare footage showing the Great Fire of Smyrna in 1922. Few people have ever heard about this incredible act of courage. In September 1922, while smoke rose from the burning city of Smyrna and #Greek and #Armenian #Christians were brutally killed on the quay, the brave crew of the Japanese cargo ship Tokei Maru chose humanity and saved hundreds of lives. On 9 September 1922, Turkish forces entered Smyrna. Massacre, rape, and deportation of Greek and Armenian civilians followed. Four days later, a fire broke out in the Armenian quarter and destroyed much of Smyrna. The scenes on the waterfront were horrible. There was the most awful scream one could ever imagine. Many did undoubtedly jump into the sea, from sheer panic. Mothers with their babies, the fire going on over their heads, and many of the bundles of clothes also on fire, and the people all screaming. About twenty Allied warships and cargo vessels sat at anchor. Among them was the Japanese freighter Tokei Maru. Anna Harlowe Birge, wife of Professor Birge of the International College at Smyrna, witnessed the helpless refugees crowding each other off the wharves as Smyrna began to burn. Men and women could be seen swimming in the harbor in the hope of rescue; many drowned. She wrote: "In the harbor, at that time, was a Japanese freighter, which had just arrived loaded to the decks with a very valuable cargo of silks, laces, and china representing many thousands of dollars. The Japanese captain, when he realized the situation, did not hesitate. The whole cargo went overboard into the dirty waters of the harbor, and the freighter was loaded with several hundred refugees, who were taken to Piraeus and landed in safety on Greek shores." During the same Smyrna catastrophe, she helped about forty Armenian students. She wrote her name after theirs and presented them as her sons. A Turkish military official, struck by the boldness of the act, allowed her and the boys to board a destroyer in the harbor. The Japanese ship was not left in peace. According to the Greek newspaper Empros, after the captain sent out the ship’s small boats, Kemalist soldiers surrounded them and threatened to sink them unless the refugees were given up. The captain refused. He is reported to have said that if they touched the people under his protection, he would treat it as an insult to the Japanese flag and a threat to Japan. The soldiers then consulted a superior and let the boats go. U.S. Consul George Horton, writing on 18 September 1922, confirmed the rescue itself: a Japanese ship took refugees; cargo was said to have been thrown overboard; and passengers praised the kindness of the Japanese officers and men. Contemporary Greek reports put one sailing about 825 people. Japanese records confirm that Tokei Maru was in the eastern Mediterranean in September 1922. The humanitarian actions of the Japanese ship were also recorded at the time by many Armenian and Greek survivors of the Smyrna catastrophe. Never forget Smyrna. For 3,000 years, Smyrna had been a vibrant Greek Christian jewel of Asia Minor. That September, families were trapped between the burning city and the sea. Behind them, their ancient quarters were turning to ash. Ahead of them was only water.