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Flood in the No.2 Pit on October 10, 1945
1958 - 1963

Showa Nijunen Jugatsu Toka Niko Shussui Jiko
[Flood in the No.2 Pit on October 10, 1945]
20.9 x 30.0 cm Ink Painting

On the night of October 10, 1945, the rise of underground water exceeded the efficiency limit of the drainage system of our pit because we had heavy rain day after day, even though a typhoon that had been approaching did not hit the pit.
The pumps at the pit bottom of the No.6 level of the main slope were nearly under water because of a 4-hour-long power cut from 3:00 p.m. Miners were gathered by an emergency call. During the night, they pulled up two 75-HP pumps from the pit bottom and a 30-HP pump each from the No.2 diagonal slope and another diagonal slope cut through a fault (danso-oroshi) to the No.4 level of the main slope. (They used the winding machine when they pulled up these pumps through the main slope.)
We also had a heavy rain on October 11th, and the left diagonal slope cut through a fault was completely under water (because floodwater from the No.6 level poured into the slope).
The work was done by Chief Underground Foreman Mr. Den Yamamoto, who was employed on June 3rd of that year, underground bosses named Mr. Okabe and Mr. Egashira, a mechanician named Tadashi Sato, and more than ten other miners.
One 50-HP pump out of the three in the pit bottom or the middle stage of the main slope had failed and it had become hard to drain the floodwater with the two remaining operational pumps during the heavy rain. The long power cut was a cruel blow to the pit. Of course, the efficiency of the pumps had somewhat decreased because of their excessive use from the lack of materials during the war.
Fortunately, the pit's output of coal was not reduced so much, because there were many coal pillars left at workings in the upper levels. (These removed pumps were reinstalled in the same positions of the No.6 level on December 14th of the same year.)
On September 15, 1943, the end of the No.5 level left of the No. 2 diagonal slope of the main slope was inundated with water, but the water stopped after partly flooding the slope. The inundation on October 10, 1945 was the greatest of all the similar disasters which occurred in the pit before and after that. The quantity of floodwater was far greater than that of the flood on July 3, 1950.


Translation Assisted by Mr. Nathan Johndro

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