For full context, see here:
<https://www.docdroid.net/hK45eJm/img-20170916-0001-new.pdf>

The sentence in question is taken from line 17-18.
"ところが、1585年11月29日、大地震が起きた。「三百軒以上の家と数百人の人が **一人残らず** 消えた。Ushigashima
の時代が終わった」と歴史の本に書かれている。

My main problem lies with 一人残らず But first, my attempt at translation:
"However, on november 29th in the year 1585, a great earthquake occured. In a
historians book is written: 'More than 300 houses and several hundred people
... disappeared. The era Ushigashima has ended.'."

I just can't make any sense of this 一人残らず. 残らず is the conjunctive negative
form of 残る in written/formal language, but I don't know how this "not
remaining" makes any sense in this context. "more than 300 people did not
remain and disappeared" would be possible, but at least to me this way of
expressing that the survivors left the area sounds very odd. And then there is
一人. I don't know what it is supposed to tell me. Before, the text told us
about "not more than 300 people", and now we get the additional information
that these are all "solitary" or "single" persons? I don't know, I'm confused
by this...^^
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-17T09:30:15.790
53307
2017-09-17T10:35:52.727
20172
question
grammar
How is this sentence interpreted?
lf you thought 一人残らず is "odd", that means you are successfully building a good
circit to comprehend Japanese sentences in your brain :)

Actually this 一人残らず is [a set phrase meaning "everyone" or "to the last
man"](http://eow.alc.co.jp/sp/search.html?q=%E4%B8%80%E4%BA%BA%E6%AE%8B%E3%82%89%E3%81%9A&pg=1).
More generally, `一 + counter + (も +) 残らず` means "every last ～" or "all ～
without exception". It works as an emphatic adverb as a whole.

>   * ゴキブリを一匹残らず殺してください！  
>  Kill all the cockroaches!
>   * 部屋のものを一つ残らず調べた。 They investigated everything in the room.
>   * 一円残らず使え。 Spend every last cent/yen.
>
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-17T10:29:33.637
53308
2017-09-17T10:35:52.727
2017-09-17T10:35:52.727
5010
5010
53307
answer