During a long drive yesterday, I listened to 3 of the 4 tapes that my Dad recorded about his life.  I always hear things that I didn't remember hearing before.  One of the things that struck me was his mention of having felt an earthquake in Japan. He was with the U.S. Army's Counter Intelligence Corps in occupied Japan and was there about 6 months before my mother joined him.  He said he felt an earthquake and that an ensuing "tidal wave" had caused quite a bit of destruction.

So today I Googled earthquakes in Japan in 1947 and found that there was a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on November 4, 1947, which was actually his 28th birthday.  And Mom would have already joined him at the time. The earthquake originated in the Sea of Japan--between the northern part of Japan and China--a little after 9 a.m. local time.  The earthquake is listed among earthquake records kept by both the US Geological Survey at  and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

A tsunami followed, hitting the west coast of the island of Hokkaido.  Waves were reportedly 2 meters high in places.  Several videos are available on YouTube at 
https://youtu.be/heh3GB53HT0 and 
https://youtu.be/iEIfSntu0aE and 
https://youtu.be/36NIN7tFXeg

Screen shot from one of the videos

Screen shot from one of the videos