title: Petra (band)

text: The next year, the band experienced the first of its numerous lineup changes, as Hough left to form his own band, and DeGroff followed suit, leaving Hartman and newly hired guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Rob Frazier. The duo began work on the band's third album despite the lack of a record deal. Not having a steady drummer at the moment, Hartman turned to Volz for drumming and vocal help. Already entertaining an offer from REO Speedwagon to be that band's lead singer, Volz accepted Hartman's offer instead. With a band intact, touring continuing and writing begun for a new record, Petra found itself at a crossroads: Its Christian lyrics limited the number of non-Christians attending its concerts, while its hard edge likewise limited its Christian audience.


title: Petra (band)

text: Petra's performances soon attracted the notice of another newly formed label, Star Song Records, which inked the band for its third album. Recording began after a nine-month sabbatical during which its members considered what direction Petra should take. Upon returning, Hartman, Frazier and Volz worked with a host of studio musicians to record "Washes Whiter Than", a ballad-heavy soft-rock album that drew criticism from fans of the band's previous hard-edged style when it was released in 1979. Lyrically, the band shifted from overt evangelism to encouraging the young Christians who made up the bulk of its audience. The album resulted in the band's first radio hit, "Why Should the Father Bother?" Along with garnering Petra radio success for the first time, "Washes Whiter Than"'s musical depth established the band's artistic credibility, proving Petra could play multiple styles of music and appeal to more than just the "radicals" in Christiandom.


title: Petra (band)

text: Though the band had scored a hit – "Why Should the Father Bother?" was the 16th-biggest Christian radio single of 1979 – "Washes Whiter Than" was not a big seller, thanks largely to distribution problems that left many copies of the record out of stores until demand for the product had subsided. Still in search of a breakthrough record and restricted by finances from touring nationally, Frazier left the band, leaving just Hartman and Volz, whom Hartman had hired as the full-time lead vocalist. With no record sales, no way to promote the albums nationally and barely any band, Hartman considered breaking up Petra.


title: Petra (band)

text: Instead Hartman met Mark Kelly, a former lead vocalist and bassist for the band One Accord, and keyboardist John Slick at a Bible study and, after setting up a jam session, hired them to join him and Volz. Yet the two most important additions Petra made in 1980 did not play an instrument or sing a note for the band.


title: Petra (band)

text: With Petra having established its radio bona fides and refocused its lyrical message, Star Song looked for a producer who could take the band's fourth album back to its hard rock roots, hiring Jonathan David Brown, who had successfully produced albums with radio hits by fellow Jesus Music bands Daniel Amos, Sweet Comfort Band and Parable. Additionally, Petra hired Mark Hollingsworth, who had experience in the secular music industry, to manage and promote the band.


title: Petra (band)

text: The four band members and studio drummer Keith Edwards recorded "Never Say Die" and released it in 1981, with the first single a song originally written and performed by Volz's old band. "The Coloring Song" was Petra's big break, rocketing to the top of three Christian radio charts (rock, adult contemporary, inspirational) and reaching the top five of a fourth (southern gospel). Other songs – including the haunting "For Annie", a song about teen suicide; the rocking "Chameleon"; and the controversial "Killing My Old Man" – became audience favorites.


title: Petra (band)

text: Sporting a heavier, more polished sound in the vein of Foreigner, Styx or Kansas, "Never Say Die" became the breakthrough album for which the band and its label had hoped, receiving rave reviews. "CCM Magazine" compared the band's new sound to Boston's, praising the album's lyrical and musical content and calling "Never Say Die" "by far their finest to date."


title: Petra (band)

text: Ultimately, "The Coloring Song" became the third-hottest song on Christian radio in 1982 and the 14th-highest-ranked single of the decade on the Christian adult contemporary charts. It stayed on the radio charts an astounding 14 months, while "For Annie" reached the top five on Christian radio in 24 markets.


title: Petra (band)

text: As important as the success on radio was the band's ability to tour nationally – the costs of which had been formidable in previous years. Unable to raise enough money for nationwide tours in support of its previous albums, Petra received another break when the band Servant invited it to open on its 1981–82 tour. Under Hollingsworth's tutelage, the band refined its live performances, its members dressing in camouflage to emphasize the spiritual warfare theme recalled by "Never Say Die"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s artwork, which featured an ocean war setting with an electric guitar doubling as an aircraft carrier. The tour turned "Never Say Die" into a commercial hit. In December 1981, it became the first Petra album to crack the "Billboard" Top 40 Inspirational LPs chart, debuting at No. 27, peaking at No. 7 in April 1982, and lasting on the chart through February 1983, more than 60 weeks after its debut.


title: Petra (band)

text: Shortly after recording "Never Say Die", Petra hired Louie Weaver, previously a drummer for early Christian rock acts Randy Matthews and Fireworks. The band's touring lineup was set, and Petra went on the road for 300 days in 1982, playing 162 shows, stopping only for the five weeks it took to record the follow-up album, "More Power To Ya", that summer.


title: Petra (band)

text: The album built on the themes introduced by its predecessor, from the artwork – again featuring electric guitars, this time doubling as "Star Wars"-style spaceships – to the music, which again featured a mix of hard-driving rockers and radio-friendly ballads. The formula was becoming clear: Two radio ballads (the title track and "Road to Zion" fitting the bill this time), one Volz-penned praise tune ("Praise Ye the Lord" on "Never Say Die", "Let Everything That Hath Breath" for "More Power to Ya"), and six or seven straight-ahead progressive rock songs written by Hartman, touching on topics aimed mostly at young Christians.


title: Petra (band)

text: Petra also used the record to defuse the backmasking controversy, which had begun to spread into Christian music, as conservative church leaders accused Christian artists of hiding subliminal messages that could only be heard when records were played in reverse. Inserting a blatant piece of backmasking in the break between the title track and hard rocker "Judas' Kiss", the band's message was less than subtle. Played in reverse, the backmasked portion stated: "What are you looking for the devil for when you oughta be looking for the Lord?" It was not the first – nor would it be the last – time Petra weighed in against critics of contemporary Christian music.


title: Petra (band)

text: The title track became a smash radio hit, the fourth-hottest song of 1983 on Christian adult contemporary radio, and the album was hailed as Petra's best yet:


title: Petra (band)

text: Ever since "Washes Whiter Than", the "new" Petra has been working out the bugs of a polished pop-rock sound. With their latest release, "More Power to Ya", say goodbye to bugs. Petra has crafted a style that could easily lock horns with anything on the industry charts and win.


title: Petra (band)

text: The band also began receiving attention from the mainstream music industry, as "Billboard" dubbed "More Power to Ya" a "Top Album Pick" and praised the band's "surging music, tough lyrics and effective vocals." Helped by the positive press and Star Song's recent distribution deal with Word Records, the album quickly surpassed the sales of "Never Say Die", jumping to sixth on the Billboard inspirational chart within three months and trailing only albums by pop and traditional Christian artists such as Amy Grant, Sandi Patti and the Imperials.


title: Petra (band)

text: A year after its release, "More Power to Ya" remained one of the five best-selling albums in Christian music, while "Never Say Die" remained in the top 20 – more than two years after it hit the shelves. At the end of 1982, the two albums had sold nearly 100,000 units combined. By the next summer, "More Power to Ya" alone had topped 125,000, a total nearly unthinkable for a Christian rock album just 12 months earlier. "More Power to Ya" would not drop out of the Top 40 Christian albums until June 1985, more than two and one-half years after its debut.


title: Petra (band)

text: Petra again hit the road for an intense tour with Servant, playing to an estimated 150,000 people in 1982, mostly in venues seating as few as 1,000 people. Petra played 152 shows in 1983, taking six weeks off that summer to record the follow-up, "Not of this World".


title: Petra (band)

text: Stylistically, the album was similar to the band's previous two releases, filled with straight-ahead rockers and garnished with radio-friendly ballads, but for the first time, the band experimented with synthesizers; however, they did not shift completely away from the Hammond B3 organ, as it was featured in several tracks ("Not of This World", "Grave Robber", "Occupy" and "Lift Him Up"). Nevertheless, the result was something of a preview of the band's direction in future albums, as Petra would embrace the heavier guitar styles that such a sound better complemented. As if to emphasize the shift, the album opened and closed with Petra's first-ever instrumental tracks: synthesized versions of the Doxology.


title: Petra (band)

text: As with the band's most recent albums, "Not of This World" was well received critically and commercially. By now widely recognized as the top Christian rock band in the genre's short history, the Petra formula was well in place. ""Not of This World" continues Petra's winning streak of great records that minister the Good News with good music," "CCM Magazine" wrote in praising the album. In addition, "Not of This World" garnered Petra its first Grammy nomination, for Best Performance By a Gospel Duo, Group, Choir or Chorus in 1985.


title: Petra (band)

text: Continuing with the trend of producing radio hits, the title track became a major radio hit during 1983 and 1984, with "Grave Robber" being a minor radio hit during that same time. "Lift Him Up" was the featured praise song on this album. The album was massively successful in the still-new world of Christian rock: It became the No. 1 Christian album in the country in February 1984, dislodging Amy Grant's "Age to Age", which had held the top spot for more than a year. More than six months after its release, "Not of This World" remained in the top five, behind two albums by Grant and one by Sandi Patty. "More Power to Ya", in its 86th week on the chart, was still in the top 10.


title: Petra (band)

text: To support "Not of This World", Petra launched its biggest tour yet – 150 dates around the world with a total attendance of more than 450,000 people through the end of 1984. Headlining for the first time, Petra poured resources into creating a concert experience as dynamic as any secular rock band, using numerous lights, stage effects and costumes.


title: Petra (band)

text: The band is not in competition with other Christian bands. We feel we are competing with Journey, Styx and REO Speedwagon. We need to be aware of them, because the people who come to see Petra go to see those bands as well. We are being very naïve if we don't keep that in mind. We need to have a light system, sound system and presentation that will be competitive with those groups.


title: Petra (band)

text: With 1984 drawing to a close, "Not of This World" was deemed Christian music's fourth-best-selling album of the year, while "More Power to Ya", released nearly two years earlier, was No. 5. No other rock albums were in the top 12. Petra itself, meanwhile was listed second only to Amy Grant as "Billboard"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Top Inspirational Artist of 1984.


title: Petra (band)

text: By any measure, Petra was at the height of its success as it toured for "Not of This World" and prepared to record a follow-up album. No Christian rock band had sold more records, played before bigger crowds or had enjoyed such pervasive radio airplay.


title: Petra (band)

text: As Petra ended its tour and prepared to enter the studio, Slick left the band, and Petra again turned to Brown to produce what would ultimately be the last studio album of the Volz era. Looking for a more electronic sound and down a keyboardist, Brown turned to a programmer to create keyboard, bass and drum sounds electronically, effectively sidelining Kelly and Weaver during the recording process and continuing a practice begun the previous album in which Brown sought someone other than Weaver to drum for the band inside the studio. Toward the end of recording the album, John Lawry, who had played with the band during the "Not of This World" tour after fulfilling his obligations to the Joe English Band, joined officially as Petra's newest keyboardist.


title: Petra (band)

text: "Beat the System" was released in 1985, and it featured a dramatic departure from Petra's previous style, emphasizing keyboards, electronic drums and computerized sound effects. The synth-heavy rock record was a monster hit.


title: Petra (band)

text: Helped in part by a newly inked distribution agreement between Word and A&M that would give Petra and other Word-distributed bands placement in mainstream music stores for the first time, "Beat the System" sold more than 200,000 copies in four months, and by the end of the year, "Billboard" had certified Petra as the biggest-selling gospel music group in the country. When it debuted at No. 18 on the Billboard Top 40 Inspirational LPs chart in February 1985, "Beat the System" trailed both "Not of This World" (No. 6 in its 56th week on the chart) and "More Power to Ya" (No. 15 in week 115). Not for long: It leapt to No. 4 on the next chart, giving Petra two top 10 albums for the first time, and by June it had taken over the top spot on the chart, which it held for more than two months. In the end, "Beat the System" was one of the nation's top two Christian albums for nearly half a year.


title: Petra (band)

text: For its career, Petra topped the million-record mark in 1985, with 900,000 of them sold in the four years since "Never Say Die". At the time of its release, "Beat the System" was the biggest Christian rock record ever recorded and the third-biggest Christian album of the 1980s (trailing only Amy Grant's "Age to Age" and Sandi Patti's "Songs From the Heart"), even though it did not produce any radio hits. By decade's end, "Beat the System"'s impact on the Christian sales charts trailed only records by Grant, Patti, Steve Green and Michael W. Smith. Finally, the band was nominated for a Grammy for the second consecutive year, again for Best Gospel Performance by a Duo, Group, Choir or Chorus.


title: Petra (band)

text: Petra recorded a music video of "Beat the System"'s title track, and then went on tour again, ultimately playing to more than 500,000 people in the yearlong world tour, which ranked second in all of Christian music only to Amy Grant's. To capture the energy of the tour, the band recorded performances in Tennessee and South Carolina over three nights in November 1985 and released the final product on vinyl and VHS shortly after, dubbing it "Captured in Time and Space".


title: Petra (band)

text: The album was a farewell to Petra's first era of popularity and the sound it had cultivated with Volz's distinctive vocals. As constant touring took its toll on the band, Hartman and Volz began to disagree about Petra's future, both on stage and off. The tour, while it drew more fans than ever, was expensive, and it left Petra hurting financially. Increased competition from other Christian rock bands, for whom Petra had paved the way, led to lower-than-expected showings as the tour went on. As Hartman told "CCM Magazine" in 1986, "If I had to put it in a nutshell without getting too deep, I would have to say it's business. Greg and I agree on just about everything except business."


title: Petra (band)

text: In 1985 Volz announced he would leave the band to pursue a solo career upon completion of the tour and release of the live album, leaving in doubt the future of the world's biggest Christian rock band.


title: Petra (band)

text: With Petra hurting financially and Volz announcing his departure, rumors swirled that Petra would break up.


title: Petra (band)

text: Instead, Hartman turned to former Head East vocalist John Schlitt, whom he had met on an airplane some years before but who had since converted to Christianity and left rock music altogether. Schlitt needed little convincing. He was introduced to Petra fans at a show in Australia in February 1986.


title: Petra (band)

text: With Petra seeking a new musical direction to support the style of its new vocalist – and expressing unhappiness with the sound Brown produced for "Captured in Time and Space" – band and producer parted ways. To replace Brown, Star Song tapped the Elefante brothers – John, former keyboardist and lead vocalist for Kansas, and Dino, who had written songs for Kansas and had more recently produced albums for Christian metal bands such as Barren Cross. The combination of Schlitt and the Elefante Brothers significantly altered Petra's sound and set the stage for the band's greatest success.


title: Petra (band)

text: After a brief introductory tour overseas with Schlitt singing the Volz classics, Petra entered the studio to record the singer's first album with the band.


title: Petra (band)

text: To a man, Petra's members said they found the Elefantes easier to work with, and for the first time since "More Power to Ya", the entire band performed on the same record without studio fill-ins. Likewise, the Elefantes' hard rock roots led to re-emphasizing Hartman's guitars as the preeminent instrument in the band's sound. Looking to shatter the "Petra formula", the band intentionally avoided what Hartman called "a stock radio ballad." While acknowledging that the abrupt change in style likely cost the band some fans, Hartman hailed "Back to the Street" as "the truest representation of this band's talent."


title: Petra (band)

text: The result was a transitional album that neither reflected where Petra had been, nor where the band would be for the next decade. As a result, sales lagged, though the one ballad on the album, "Thankful Heart", achieved radio success, ranking No. 9 on the annual airplay chart. The album received positive reviews though not quite gushing, as evidenced by "CCM Magazine"'s half-hearted praise: "With "Back to the Street", Petra rocks, and they do it pretty well." Nevertheless, the album was Petra's third straight studio offering to be nominated for a Grammy, and for the first time, the Gospel Music Association recognized Petra's success with three Dove Award nominations: artist of the year, band of the year and contemporary album of the year.


title: Petra (band)

text: Finishing their "Back to the Street" tour in December 1986, Petra entered the studio the next month to begin writing and recording the band's follow-up. In the three weeks between, Hartman wrote seven songs – the foundation of what would become "This Means War!", an album that musically saw the band continue to transition away from the keyboard-influenced, highly polished rock sound it had perfected earlier in the decade and toward an arena-rock sound heavy on guitars and emphasizing Schlitt's soaring vocals.


title: Petra (band)

text: Lyrically, "This Means War!" took the implicit spiritual warfare theme that had been present in Petra's albums and tours since "Never Say Die" and emphasized it further. Although the album ended for good the band's longstanding tradition of featuring electric guitars as warcraft, its picture of a warrior on his knees complemented songs with titles such as "Get on Your Knees and Fight Like a Man", "All the King's Horses" and the title track, a rousing rocker backed by a marching drumbeat that addressed Satan as the preordained loser of the war he had declared against Christ and his followers.


title: Petra (band)

text: The message seemed in part a response to the attacks lobbed against the band by preachers and televangelists, especially Jimmy Swaggart, who denounced rock music in general – and Petra in particular – as tools of the devil. It was not the first time Petra musically had addressed its Christian critics, doing so most explicitly in "Witch Hunt" on "Beat the System", but the attacks clearly affected the band. "Not only does it deny the kids the opportunity and encouragement to go to the concert, but it hurts terribly our ministry," Hartman told "CCM". "We experience a lot more skepticism. He says that there's all this decadence in Christian music, and that we're all in it for the money."


title: Petra (band)

text: The result was "the most conceptual album Petra's ever done" and another hit. Within five weeks of its release, the album hit No. 1 on "CCM Magazine"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s sales chart, where it joined the title track and "Don't Let Your Heart Be Hardened" at the top of their respective charts. "This Means War"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s initial sales drew comparisons to Amy Grant's" Age to Age" as consumers snapped it off the shelves (though it ultimately fell short of that album's lofty marks). It also garnered the band its fourth consecutive Grammy nomination.


title: Petra (band)

text: As Petra's popularity built still further, the band expanded their reach by sponsoring children through Compassion International and advocating for a Constitutional amendment allowing prayer in public schools. Applying the spiritual warfare theme explored in "This Means War!", Petra formed "Prayer Warrior" groups across the country – bands of youth groups to pray for each other. The focus on shepherding Christian youth through a spiritual battle zone continued on the band's next album, "On Fire!"


title: Petra (band)

text: With a cover featuring a flaming sword breaking through a pane of glass, "On Fire!" was Petra's heaviest album yet, the culmination of the transition begun with Back to the Street. A fully hard rock album, bordering in places on heavy metal, "On Fire!" made the most of songs such as "All Fired Up", "Hit You Where You Live" and "Mine Field" – all of which continued the spiritual warfare theme. "CCM Magazine", in praising the album, called "On Fire!" "the crunchiest Petra sound yet" and praised the first two tracks as "the most exciting eight minutes of rock Petra has ever put to tape." Once again, the band scored hits with its initial singles, as "First Love", the radio ballad, and "Mine Field", the rocker, hit No. 1 on three of Music Line Magazine's four Christian radio charts. "First Love" finished 1988 as the year's 10th-most-played radio single.


title: Petra (band)

text: With the album, Petra released a long-form film, tying a series of short-form music videos together with ministry segments. The film garnered the band its first Dove award, for Long Form Music Video of the Year in 1990, and its fifth consecutive Grammy nomination for its studio offerings.


title: Petra (band)

text: The tour, meanwhile, reflected the band's increasing name recognition, with more than 100 shows and a stage set that included a steel and aluminum sword modeled after the "On Fire!" album cover. Touring with popular evangelist Josh McDowell Petra played to audiences of more than 8,000 each night.


title: Petra (band)

text: "On Fire!" featured the first lineup change since Schlitt joined the band, as bassist Mark Kelly was replaced by Ronny Cates, ushering in the most stable lineup in Petra's history: Hartman on guitars, Schlitt on vocals, Lawry on keyboards, Weaver on drums and Cates on bass.


title: Petra (band)

text: Touring with the popular McDowell bought Petra credibility with youth leaders and church pastors, who were impressed by the speaker's forceful defense of Christian rock music. Seeking to build on that growing influence, Hartman and Schlitt turned to youth ministers directly at a conference in California, asking them how Petra could better aid their ministries. The response: Produce some music that could be better replicated in a church setting. "So we thought, ‘What if we do a CD with worship songs that we think are cool, but do it Petra style and then provide an accompaniment track for the youth groups?'" Schlitt said.


title: Petra (band)

text: The result was the first-ever contemporary praise-and-worship album in Christian music, with praise staples such as "Take Me In", "The Battle Belongs to the Lord" and "King of Kings" done in Petra's hard-rock style, together with two new rockers in the same lyrical vein. The band's new label, Word Records, billed it "a praise and worship record unlike any ever seen." Inside Music magazine agreed, calling "Petra Praise" "truly different." In one interview, Schlitt acknowledged the band was "going out on a limb."


title: Petra (band)

text: The limb held, as "" became one of the band's best selling, certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in 1998. After its release in October 1989, "Petra Praise" remained in the top 10 of Christian contemporary album sales for nearly a year. The artwork also won a Dove award, the band's second. In subsequent years, the album would be cited by such popular praise bands as Sonicflood as influencing their decision to enter the genre.


title: Petra (band)

text: The success of "Petra Praise" opened the door for even greater success than Petra had seen previously. The Christian rock scene had exploded, and the critics of the past decade had largely been silenced. The band went back to the studio to record a hard-hitting album that would be accompanied by a concept movie, in which the characters interact with the band between six music videos.


title: Petra (band)

text: Lyrically, the album focused on the concept of faith implied by the album's title, "Beyond Belief", with radio singles entitled "Creed", "Love" and "Prayer", as well as the title track and "I Am on the Rock". Musically, the band embraced a hard rock sound reminiscent of Def Leppard, as described by "CCM Magazine": "Petra has certainly moved more and more toward a big, arena rock sound in the past few years (the most obvious fruit of their association with the Elefantes), and "Beyond Belief" is, if not completely Kansas-inspired, certainly on par with some of the best arena rock music around." The band also, for the first time, drew from a handful of local non-accredited artists such as John Wayfield (percussion), Adam Lawson (keyboards) and Mark Strumford (guitar) during the album's recording.


title: Petra (band)

text: "Beyond Belief" was huge, the band's most successful release ever, peaking at No. 1 on the Christian charts and certified Gold by the RIAA in 1995. The radio single "Love" shot to the top of the charts and stayed there, becoming Christian radio's biggest hit of 1991.


title: Petra (band)

text: It won the band its first Grammy, in the newly created best Rock/Contemporary Gospel Album category, as well as Dove awards for Rock Album of the Year, Rock Recorded Song of the Year for the title track and Recorded Music Packaging of the Year. More historically, the Gospel Music Association for the first time honored a rock band as Group of the Year, as Petra beat contemporary artists 4HIM, First Call, Take 6 and BeBe & CeCe Winans.


title: Petra (band)

text: The band was at the peak of its popularity, playing to sold-out arenas of 10,000 fans on yet another nationwide tour, and in "CCM Magazine"'s year-end Reader's Choice Awards, the band swept to first place in eight categories, second place in four more, and garnered three times as many votes for pop/rock artist of the year as second-place finisher Michael W. Smith.


title: Petra (band)

text: At the height of its career, the members of Petra were wary of repeating the arena-rock formula that had served the band so well since the mid-1980s. Seeking a way to change directions musically, the band and its producers for their next album hired an outside engineer for the first time, bringing in Neil Kernon, who had previously worked with Kansas, Elton John and Peter Gabriel. Along with its usual hard rock fare, the band added tracks that featured a gospel choir and a bluesy sound, and Kernon's influence led to an album with a stronger emphasis on the band's rhythm section.


title: Petra (band)

text: Hartman also shifted his songwriting style, moving away from his practice of constructing albums around loose themes and writing tracks more personal in nature. The result was "Unseen Power", a Petra album that, for the first time, was distributed by a secular record company, Epic. That, and the immensely favorable reaction to its release, led to talk of Petra following in the wake of Grant and Smith as a potential crossover hit, popular in both Christian and secular circles. "If it happens, then yes, we're ready", Schlitt said of the possibility.


title: Petra (band)

text: Though the secular breakthrough never came, the album was a hit, allowing Petra to top 6 million records sold since its inception – the most of any Christian artist at the time. The newly formed Hard Rock Cafe asked the band for materials to include in its restaurant displays, another first for a Christian band. And Petra became the only Christian band to play Farm Aid when it took the Texas Stadium stage before 40,000 people in 1992. "Unseen Power" opened No. 1 on Billboard's Christian music charts in November 1991 and stayed in the top 10 for seven months. Radio single "Hand on My Heart" was among the top 20 songs on Christian AC radio in 1992, and it was one of five tracks from the album to hit No. 1 on the Christian radio charts.


title: Petra (band)

text: "Unseen Power" garnered the band its second Grammy, again winning for Best Rock/Contemporary Gospel Album, and a Dove award, for Rock Recorded Song of the Year.


title: Petra (band)

text: Taking what for its members was an unusual yearlong break between touring and recording the band's followup to "Unseen Power", Petra emerged to a changing musical landscape requiring adjustment from the 20-year-old band. "I think we're on the verge of a new era for Petra", Hartman said shortly after the release of 1993's "Wake-Up Call". "I'm not sure what that will be – but it won't be disco."


title: Petra (band)

text: As the broader musical climate soured on the arena-rock style that had been Petra's musical core, the band continued to revamp its style, breaking with the Elefante brothers for the first time in six records. Instead, Brown Bannister, who at the time had won eight Grammy awards as a producer and songwriter, mostly for Amy Grant, was brought in. The reason for the change was purely practical: the band, now consisting largely of middle-aged fathers living in Nashville, did not want to travel to California, where the Elefantes were based, to record an album. Also seeking a new musical direction, the band sought out Bannister after enjoying his work for White Heart earlier in the decade.


title: Petra (band)

text: "Wake Up Call" as a result was the band's first significant shift from the style of the 1980s, featuring fewer driving rock tracks and favoring instead midtempo songs and ballads. Bannister's production style, favoring authenticity over the Elefantes' slick production styles, led to a rawer feel for the album. Hartman called it "probably the most indicative of who Petra really is."


title: Petra (band)

text: The change was well received, as the album stayed on Billboard's Christian albums chart for more than five months and was the third consecutive Petra album to receive a Grammy for Best Rock Gospel Album. The short-lived America's Christian Music Awards named Petra favorite rock group or duo and named "Wake Up Call" favorite rock CD, and the band won a Dove award for Rock Album of the Year. In the 1994 "CCM" Readers Awards, the band continued to clean up, winning Favorite Rock Artist/Band, Favorite Rock Album for "Wake Up Call" and Favorite Song for the radio hit "Just Reach Out".


title: Petra (band)

text: More change was in the offing, however. As the band concluded its world tour for "Wake Up Call" in 1994 and began looking to re-enter the studio, Hartman, the lone remaining founding member, decided to retire from touring. An era had ended.


title: Petra (band)

text: Once again, rumors swirled about the band's imminent demise. Lawry, who had been Petra's keyboardist for more than a decade, left the band, and Hartman, citing a desire to be closer to his family and focus on songwriting, retired from touring. Meanwhile, Schlitt had just released a solo album. The band rejected the rumors, however; Hartman said he would continue writing and doing studio work with the band, and he turned over nearly all of Petra's administrative duties to Schlitt.


title: Petra (band)

text: Schlitt brought in Jim Cooper to replace Lawry and David Lichens (LITCH-ens) to replace Hartman on tour. Weaver was now the only band member with a connection to the Volz era of Petra – and he was hired when Petra was 10 years old. It was the first wholesale lineup change since 1980, but it was far from the last.


title: Petra (band)

text: The new lineup set to recording "No Doubt", a concerted effort to reach a younger audience no longer interested in the driving hard rock that had made the band the biggest in Christian music. Back to using producers John and Dino Elefante, Schlitt called the album "the best record we've ever done." The critics disagreed, citing in particular the electronic, scaled-back nature of the drums, which sapped the life out of the disc's rockers, and the prevalence of "fair to middlin'" tracks that failed to "break any new ground."


title: Petra (band)

text: The album opened at No. 2 on Billboard's Top Christian Albums chart but fell out of the Top 10 two months later. It peaked at No. 91 on the Billboard Top 200, lasting eight weeks, and Schlitt acknowledged sales had dropped from the band's previous chart-toppers. Its key radio single, the title track, barely cracked the 40 most-played songs for 1995. For the first time since the creation of the Rock Gospel Album category in the Grammies, Petra was nominated but failed to win, though it did pick up a Dove award for Rock Album of the Year, and "CCM Magazine"'s annual Reader Awards placed Petra once again at the top as the fans' favorite rock band, with "No Doubt" their favorite rock album.


title: Petra (band)

text: The lackluster sales and tepid reviews, combined with the lineup changes, painted a picture of a band in decline. The quick departure of Cooper and Lichens, joined by longtime bassist Cates, did not help. Schlitt said Cates cited fatigue with the touring lifestyle, but that he fired Lichens and Cooper over differences about the band's musical direction and unhappiness with the possibility of recording a second praise album. Lonnie Chapin replaced Cates on bass, while two members of Schlitt's solo band, Kevin Brandow (guitar and keyboards) and Pete Orta (guitars), filled the remaining slots.


title: Petra (band)

text: Despite the turmoil, Petra prepared in 1997 to release its 16th studio album, a sequel to its wildly successful "Petra Praise" album eight years earlier. The band had noticeably slipped from the heights it had occupied early in the decade. "Things kind of tapered off for a while," Hartman said of the post-"Wake Up Call" Petra. "I think there's a really good chance Petra could be back on the upswing."


title: Petra (band)

text: "" featured few truly hard rock songs, as evidenced when it was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album category. Instead, it placed heavy emphasis on acoustic guitars, mandolins, keyboards and other, more experimental styles. The title track, the album's big radio single, featured guest vocals from Foreigner's Lou Gramm, and though "Petra Praise 2" reached No. 1 on the Christian albums chart, overall sales flagged, as the album barely reached the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 155. One secular critic dismissed the disc as "religious muzak" and labeled Petra "the Barry Manilow of Christian rock". "We Need Jesus" eventually won a Dove award for Praise and Worship Album.


title: Petra (band)

text: The failure of the album to rejuvenate the band's career seemed apparent by September 1997, when Schlitt was asked about the band's success:


title: Petra (band)

text: I would say from my gut that we are probably as low as we're going to go in that valley, and heading for the next peak. That's fine with me because everybody needs a turn. We've been at the top of the mountain twice already, and, if nothing else, we need to get out of the way and let other bands have some fun. I mean, now there's variety that Christian kids can have. And they don't just grab Petra. Now they can grab Jars of Clay, dc Talk or Newsboys.


title: Petra (band)

text: With Orta, Chapin and Brandow established in the band, they joined with Schlitt and Weaver to produce the incarnation's first full-fledged Petra album, "God Fixation". The three new members were given broad reign to influence the music as they wrote songs with Hartman, leading to a drastic change toward a mellower rock sound.


title: Petra (band)

text: Though the album was praised by critics as "fresher and more immediate than [Petra] has been in a long time," hailed for "strong" music and songwriting and nominated for a Grammy, fans clearly rejected the album's alt-rock, mid-tempo feel. The album failed to reach any higher than 10th on the Billboard Christian albums chart and missed the Billboard 200 altogether.


title: Petra (band)

text: Faced with criticism that the band had strayed too far from its hard-rock roots and did not "sound like Petra anymore", Schlitt responded: "Petra wasn't selling worth a stink. Petra was going down the drain, and I don't want to go down the drain yet."


title: Petra (band)

text: The band's contract with Word Records was stumbling to an end. To complete the six-disc deal, the band re-recorded a set of its biggest hits in an acoustic format, including two new songs. The album, "Double Take", was all but ignored by both Word and the Christian music industry and met with antipathy by the band's fans, who rejected the reimagining of some of Petra's most loved songs. Though it garnered some positive reviews – HM Magazine for one said "these stripped-down rockers sound pretty good" – the album was largely rejected by critics and fans alike, and it sold fewer than 40,000 copies. When "Double Take" won Petra its fourth Grammy, for Best Rock Gospel Album in 2001, critics charged it was an example of the Grammy voters being "out to lunch."


title: Petra (band)

text: After six albums that spanned Petra's highest peak and ended with the band in its lowest valley to date, the band and its label parted ways. "Their interests were starting to go in other directions, so it was time for us to leave and find a label that's interested in rebuilding the fact that we still exist," Schlitt said.


title: Petra (band)

text: With the band's future again uncertain, Petra received the highest of accolades from the Gospel Music Association as the first rock band to be inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Soon after, however, as Petra continued to search for a new label home, the band experienced another massive upheaval when newest member, Trent Thomason, left the band after only a short tenure due to lack of live dates. Soon after, Chapin and Orta left the band as well. Once again, only Schlitt and Weaver were left as the faces of Petra.


title: Petra (band)

text: After a lengthy label search, Petra was signed by Inpop Records, then just two years old and founded by Newsboys lead singer Peter Furler, an admirer of the band. Inpop assigned former Sonicflood members Dwayne Larring and Jason Halbert to produce a third praise-and-worship album, to be called "Revival" – a none-too-subtle reference to the label's hopes for Petra's career. Additionally, the label focused its packaging solely on the band's three most famous members, convincing Hartman, who still was not touring but had never stopped writing and playing guitar in the studio, to join Schlitt and Weaver as the label-marketed version of Petra. Studio musicians, including bassist Rick Cua, filled in the rest.


title: Petra (band)

text: The result was a well-received album, helped in part by an Inpop gimmick that comprised sending radio executives and media representatives an unlabeled CD of the album and asking them to guess – many doing so futilely – what band had recorded it. "CCM Magazine" described the album as a "cage match pitting Aerosmith against Third Day," and several reviewers praised the band's modern-rock rendition of the classic hymn "Amazing Grace". Nevertheless, the band struggled to gain airplay for its singles, and the album failed to crack even the Billboard Christian albums chart.


title: Petra (band)

text: Petra hired three new members for the subsequent tour: Bryce Bell on keyboards, Quinton Gibson on guitars and Greg Bailey on bass. His inclusion on the album artwork notwithstanding, Hartman maintained his retirement from touring, although he returned for the recording of this album.


title: Petra (band)

text: As it entered the studio for its 20th album, Petra continued to find stability elusive, as Bell and Gibson left to pursue other endeavors. Then, in a shocking announcement, the band announced drummer Louie Weaver, the longest-tenured member of Petra other than Hartman himself, had "come to an impasse" with the rest of the band and "will not be forming with us any longer." Weaver, in his own statement, said that the band had fired him, and that he was "shocked" and "surprised" by the decision. Hartman later said the decision had been made by Schlitt, in consultation with his pastor and Hartman; neither side gave a reason for the dismissal.


title: Petra (band)

text: For the band's 20th studio album, "Jekyll and Hyde," Furler handled production duties himself. With Weaver's departure, Furler played drums, while Gibson's departure meant Hartman would be Petra's full-time guitarist for the first time since 1994. Wade Jaynes, a studio bassist, also was tapped to perform in place of Bailey, at Furler's request. Furler, in particular, pushed Hartman to write heavier, riff-based songs along the lines of the title track, which Hartman had written before the decision to record Revival instead of a traditional album with original material.


title: Petra (band)

text: The result was an exceptionally heavy album filled with crunchy riffs, modernized by removing the trademark keyboards and guitar solos from Petra's sound. In an Inpop-produced statement, Schlitt called the album "our most aggressive rock record so far." Critics and fans alike greeted the album with acclamation, hailing it as the band's "best album in years" and "one of this year's biggest musical surprises," "a powerful rock effort ... bordering on metal." For the first time since "Petra Praise 2", six years earlier, the band broke onto the Billboard charts, peaking at No. 22 on the Christian albums chart. The album also garnered Petra its 13th Grammy nomination.


title: Petra (band)

text: With no keyboardist necessary on tour, a first for the band since its earliest days, and Hartman returning to the stage, the band needed only to replace Weaver, hiring Paul Simmons shortly after the album's release. Petra then prepared a worldwide tour beginning in 2004, including a June show in Indiana that featured a reunion of original members Hartman, Hough and DeGroff in the middle of the contemporary band's set. Simmons filled in for original drummer Glover, who was invited but could not attend. Shows in India near the end of the year featured crowds as large as 20,000.


title: Petra (band)

text: Despite rumors that Petra was working on another studio album, John Schlitt announced in May 2005 that he and Hartman had agreed to disband Petra at the end of the year, following a short farewell tour.


title: Petra (band)

text: As a final sendoff, Petra recorded its show in Franklin, Tenn., on Oct 4, which included special appearances by Volz and Lawry, each performing on a handful of songs from his tenure with the band. The performance was released on CD in November and DVD in March 2006, each titled simply "Farewell". Petra's last performance began December 31, 2005, in Murphy N.C., and ended shortly after midnight, January 1, 2006, nearly 34 years after Hartman founded the band.


title: Petra (band)

text: Schlitt and Hartman, after arranging worship music together for a youth retreat, reunited for an independently released praise-and-worship CD in 2007, calling themselves II Guys from Petra and titling their album "Vertical Expressions". The songs featured contemporary praise songs in a raw-sounding, electric rock format, and included two bonus tracks from Petra's recorded farewell performance that had not been included on the "Farewell" CD. Studio musicians played drums and bass, and former Petra keyboardist Jim Cooper teamed with Hartman on production. Hartman and Schlitt have since performed several shows together, playing acoustic renditions of Petra and II Guys songs as recently as early 2010.


title: Petra (band)

text: The full band as comprised on the "Farewell" tour first reunited at the end of 2007, playing a 90-minute set in Buenos Aires as part of Rock & Vida, a festival to commemorate World AIDS Day. The lineup consisted of Hartman, Schlitt, Simmons and Bailey. This version of Petra, though in some cases with Simmons replaced by Christian Borneo on drums, reunited four more times in 2010, appearing at Heaven Fest in Longmont, Colorado, and Hills Alive Festival in Rapid City, South Dakota, as well as performing a pair of shows in Brazil. The band performed again at Rock & Vida in December 2010.


title: Petra (band)

text: In early 2010, Hartman and former Petra members agreed to reunite to record an album in the fall, with a subsequent world tour. The lineup featured Hartman on guitars, Greg X. Volz on vocals, Mark Kelly on bass, Louie Weaver on drums and John Lawry on keyboards. Although that specific lineup recorded only one studio album together – "Beat the System" in 1985 – Hartman, Volz, Kelly and Weaver were the heart of Petra's initial wave of success, recording "More Power to Ya", "Not of This World" and "Beat the System" together before Volz's departure in 1986. Additionally, Weaver toured with the band in support of "Never Say Die", Petra's first significant tour. Lawry, meanwhile, was Petra's longest-tenured keyboardist, joining the band on the "Not of This World" tour in 1984 and leaving 10 years later, at the end of Petra's second wave of success. Along with recording "Beat the System", this iteration of Petra also was filmed for "Captured in Time and Space", the first of the band's two live albums.


title: Petra (band)

text: The album, "Back to the Rock", was released for digital download in November 2010, with hard copies also sold at the band's November concert taping. It featured re-recordings of 10 classic Petra songs from the early and mid-1980s, as well as two new tracks. Hard copies of the CD went on sale in January 2011. That same month, the members of Classic Petra played a live show together for the first time in decades, taping the concert at the TBN studios, with a documentary preceding the concert. Though recorded ostensibly for broadcast on TBN and eventual DVD release, the show first found life as a live album, released digitally to iTunes and Amazon in April 2011. A companion DVD was released that July. In July 2011, Classic Petra again performed at Cornerstone Festival, closing the day of classic Christian rock.


title: Petra (band)

text: In July 2013, StarSong released a 40th Anniversary compilation album featuring more than 30 songs covering most of the band's trajectory. After that, the band reunited again with Schlitt, Hartman, Bailey, and Borneo, to tour in celebration of the band's 40th Anniversary. The band also recorded a new song titled "Holy is Your Name", and performed in several venues during the fall of 2013. During that time, it was also announced that the band was invited to play at the Classic Rock Tour 2014 slated for February 2014. The show was supposed to feature classic rock acts like Asia featuring John Payne, Phil Bates from ELO Part II, and former Genesis frontman Ray Wilson.


title: Petra (band)

text: On March 5, 2014, Petra was recognized by SESAC with the Legacy Award. The award was presented during a ceremony hed at Hillwood Country Club in Nashville, Tennessee, attended by band founder Bob Hartman, and members Schlitt, Bailey, Borneo, and keyboardist John Lawry. Petra also performed live at the event.


title: Petra (band)

text: On December 4, 2017, a parallel project titled Back to the Rock II was released, bringing re-recordings from other 1980s' hits and giving continuity to the previous "Back to the Rock". This time, the line-up does not take the name of Classic Petra, but the name of CPR Band instead (later renamed as Classic Petra Resurrection, because of its backronym). The members of this formation are: Greg X. Volz, on lead vocals; Kirk Henderson, on guitar; John Lawry, on keyboards; Ronny Cates, on bass (who would be replaced later by Greg Bailey) and Louie Weaver, on drums.


title: Petra (band)

text: Hartman, already a rock musician when he became a Christian, struggled at the time with whether Christians could glorify God through rock music. He credited the work of musician Larry Norman as inspiring him to continue in Christian rock: "I'll never forget the first time I heard him. ... The freedom Larry had on stage, that freedom to just be himself, really set me free in my songwriting; it really set me free in the establishment of Petra."


title: Petra (band)

text: During its 33-year career, Petra influenced countless artists in and out of the Christian scene. Petra was the only Christian band to play at the 1992 Farm Aid concert and the first Christian band to be included in the Hard Rock Cafe. In 2000, Petra was the first Christian rock band to be inducted to the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. "The doubts about popular music mixing with Christian lyrics have mostly vanished due to their 25-year track record of proven ministry and changed lives. Petra was a true pioneer for our industry," GMA President Frank Breeden said at the time.


title: Petra (band)

text: Few artists had as much influence in the formation and growth of what has come to be known as "contemporary Christian music" as did Petra. ...As one of the movement’s trailblazers, Petra bore the brunt of the controversy, enduring picketers, protesters and public denunciations by prominent Christian leaders. (It is, perhaps, a telling sign of the Christian community’s former resistance to Petra that the band won a Grammy before they ever won a Dove Award!) Still, all rabble-rousers aside, Petra managed to create some of Christian music’s most treasured recordings.


title: Petra (band)

text: Many artists have recorded tributes to Petra, including Christian-industry stars MxPx, Jars of Clay, Kevin Max of dc Talk, Sixpence None the Richer, Plankeye, Grammatrain and Galactic Cowboys, all of whom appeared on the tribute album "Never Say Dinosaur", released in 1996 by Star Song. Country singer Tim McGraw has covered "More Power To Ya" in his concerts, including during his portion of a national telethon to raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.


title: Petra (band)

text: After founder Bob Hartman (26 years), the band members with the longest tenures are drummer Louie Weaver (22 years) and singer John Schlitt (20 years).


title: Petra (band)

text: See the main article for detailed information on all of Petra's albums and videos, including compilation albums, as well as a list of Petra songs available on other artists' albums and other compilation albums.


title: Tu Youyou

text: Tu Youyou (; born 30 December 1930) is a Chinese pharmaceutical chemist and malariologist. She discovered artemisinin (also known as , ) and dihydroartemisinin, used to treat malaria, a breakthrough in twentieth-century tropical medicine, saving millions of lives in South China, Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America.


title: Tu Youyou

text: For her work, Tu received the 2011 Lasker Award in clinical medicine and the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura. Tu is the first Chinese Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine and the first female citizen of the People's Republic of China to receive a Nobel Prize in any category. She is also the first Chinese person to receive the Lasker Award. Tu was born, educated and carried out her research exclusively in China.


title: Tu Youyou

text: She attended Xiaoshi Middle School for junior high school and the first year of high school, before transferring to Ningbo Middle School in 1948. A tuberculosis infection interrupted her high-school education, but inspired her to go into medical research. From 1951 to 1955, she attended Peking University Medical School / Beijing Medical College. In 1955, Youyou Tu graduated from Beijing Medical University School of Pharmacy and continued her research on Chinese herbal medicine in the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. Tu studied at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and graduated in 1955. Later Tu was trained for two and a half years in traditional Chinese medicine.


title: Tu Youyou

text: After graduation, Tu worked at the Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (now the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medical Sciences) in Beijing.


title: Tu Youyou

text: During her early years in research, Tu studied "Lobelia chinensis", a traditional Chinese medicine for curing schistosomiasis, caused by trematodes which infect the urinary tract or the intestines, which was widespread in the first half of the 20th century in South China.


title: Tu Youyou

text: In 1967, during the Vietnam War, President Ho Chi Minh of North Vietnam asked Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai for help in developing a malaria treatment for his soldiers trooping down the Ho Chi Minh trail, where a majority came down with a form of malaria which is resistant to chloroquine. Because malaria was also a major cause of death in China's southern provinces, especially Guangdong, and Guangxi, Zhou Enlai convinced Mao Zedong to set up a secret drug discovery project named Project 523 after its starting date, 23May 1967.


title: Tu Youyou

text: In early 1969, Tu was appointed head of the Project 523 research group at her institute. Tu was initially sent to Hainan where she studied patients who had been infected with the disease.


title: Tu Youyou

text: Scientists worldwide had screened over 240,000 compounds without success. In 1969, Tu, then 39 years old, had an idea of screening Chinese herbs. She first investigated the Chinese medical classics in history, visiting practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine all over the country on her own. She gathered her findings in a notebook called "A Collection of Single Practical Prescriptions for Anti-Malaria". Her notebook summarized 640 prescriptions. By 1971, her team had screened over 2,000 traditional Chinese recipes and made 380 herbal extracts, from some 200 herbs, which were tested on mice.


title: Tu Youyou

text: One compound was effective, sweet wormwood ("Artemisia annua"), which was used for "intermittent fevers," a hallmark of malaria. As Tu also presented at the project seminar, its preparation was described in a 1,600-year-old text, in a recipe titled, "Emergency Prescriptions Kept Up One's Sleeve". At first, it was ineffective because they extracted it with traditional boiling water. Tu discovered that a low-temperature extraction process could be used to isolate an effective antimalarial substance from the plant; Tu says she was influenced by a traditional Chinese herbal medicine source, "The Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergency Treatments", written in 340 by Ge Hong, which states that this herb should be steeped in cold water. This book contained the direction to immerse a handful of qinghao in the equivalent of 0.4 litres of water, wring out the juice and drink it all. After rereading the recipe, Tu realised the hot water had already damaged the active ingredient in the plant; therefore she proposed a method using low-temperature ether to extract the effective compound instead. The animal tests showed it was completely effective in mice and monkeys.


title: Tu Youyou

text: In 1972, she and her colleagues obtained the pure substance and named it "qinghaosu" (), or artemisinin as it is known in English, which has saved millions of lives, especially in the developing world. Tu also studied the chemical structure and pharmacology of artemisinin. Tu's group first determined the chemical structure of artemisinin. In 1973, Tu wanted to confirm the carbonyl group in the artemisinin molecule, therefore she accidentally synthesized dihydroartemisinin.


title: Tu Youyou

text: Furthermore, Tu volunteered to be the first human subject. "As head of this research group, I had the responsibility" she said. It was safe, so she conducted successful clinical trials with human patients. Her work was published anonymously in 1977. In 1981, she presented the findings relating to artemisinin at a meeting with the World Health Organization.


title: Tu Youyou

text: She was promoted to a Researcher (, the highest researcher rank in mainland China equivalent to the academic rank of a full professor) in 1980 shortly after the Chinese economic reform began in 1978. In 2001 she was promoted to academic advisor for doctoral candidates. Currently she is the chief scientist in the academy.


title: Tu Youyou

text: Before 2011, Tu Youyou had been obscure for decades, and is described as "almost completely forgotten by people".


title: Tu Youyou

text: Tu is regarded as the "Three-Without Scientist" – no postgraduate degree (there was no postgraduate education then in China), no study or research experience abroad, and not a member of either of the Chinese national academies, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering. Tu is now regarded as a representative figure of the first generation of Chinese medical workers since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: In the course of his Gallic Wars, Julius Caesar invaded Britain twice: in 55 and 54 BC. On the first occasion Caesar took with him only two legions, and achieved little beyond a landing on the coast of Kent. The second invasion consisted of 628 ships, five legions and 2,000 cavalry. The force was so imposing that the Britons did not dare contest Caesar's landing in Kent, waiting instead until he began to move inland. Caesar eventually penetrated into Middlesex and crossed the Thames, forcing the British warlord Cassivellaunus to surrender as a tributary to Rome and setting up Mandubracius of the Trinovantes as client king.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Caesar included accounts of both invasions in his "Commentarii de Bello Gallico", with the first significant first-hand descriptions of the people, culture and geography of the island. This is effectively the start of the written history, or at least the protohistory, of Great Britain.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Britain had long been known to the classical world as a source of tin. The coastline had been explored by the Greek geographer Pytheas in the 4th century BC, and may have been explored even earlier, in the 5th century, by the Carthaginian sailor Himilco. But to many Romans, the island, lying as it did beyond the Ocean at what was to them the edge of the known world, was a land of great mystery. Some Roman writers even insisted that it did not exist, and dismissed reports of Pytheas's voyage as a hoax.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Britain during the reign of Julius Caesar had an Iron Age culture, with an estimated population of between one and four million. Archaeological research shows that its economy was broadly divided into lowland and highland zones. In the lowland southeast, large areas of fertile soil made possible extensive arable farming, and communication developed along trackways, such as the Icknield Way, the Pilgrims' Way and the Jurassic Way, and navigable rivers such as the Thames. In the highlands, north of the line between Gloucester and Lincoln, arable land was available only in isolated pockets, so pastoralism, supported by garden cultivation, was more common than settled farming, and communication was more difficult. Settlements were generally built on high ground and fortified, but in the southeast, "oppida" had begun to be established on lower ground, often at river crossings, suggesting that trade was becoming more important. Commercial contact between Britain and the continent had increased since the Roman conquest of Transalpine Gaul in 124 BC, and Italian wine was being imported via the Armorican peninsula, much of it arriving at Hengistbury Head in Dorset.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Caesar's written account of Britain says that the Belgae of northeastern Gaul had previously conducted raids on Britain, establishing settlements in some of its coastal areas, and that within living memory Diviciacus, king of the Suessiones, had held power in Britain as well as in Gaul. British coinage from this period shows a complicated pattern of intrusion. The earliest Gallo-Belgic coins that have been found in Britain date to before 100 BC, perhaps as early as 150 BC, were struck in Gaul, and have been found mainly in Kent. Later coins of a similar type were struck in Britain and are found all along the south coast as far west as Dorset. It appears that Belgic power was concentrated on the southeastern coast, although their influence spread further west and inland, perhaps through chieftains establishing political control over the native population.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: A need for prestige more than tactical concerns likely determined Caesar's campaigns in 55 BC, due to Pompey and Crassus' consulship. On the one hand, they were Caesar's political allies, and Crassus's son had fought under him the year before. But they were also his rivals, and had formidable reputations (Pompey was a great general, and Crassus was fabulously wealthy). Since the consuls could easily sway and buy public opinion, Caesar needed to stay in the public eye. His solution was to cross two water bodies no Roman army had attempted before: the Rhine and the English Channel. The nominal reason to attack Britain was the Britonic tribes had been assisting the Gauls, but like most of Caesar's "casus belli" it was just an excuse to gain stature in the eyes of the Roman people.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Caesar claimed that, in the course of his conquest of Gaul, the Britons had supported the campaigns of the mainland Gauls against him, with fugitives from among the Gallic Belgae fleeing to Belgic settlements in Britain, and the Veneti of Armorica, who controlled seaborne trade to the island, calling in aid from their British allies to fight for them against Caesar in 56 BC. Strabo says that the Venetic rebellion in 56 BC had been intended to prevent Caesar from travelling to Britain and disrupting their commercial activity, suggesting that the possibility of a British expedition had already been considered by then.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: In late summer, 55 BC, even though it was late in the campaigning season, Caesar decided to make an expedition to Britain. He summoned merchants who traded with the island, but they were unable or unwilling to give him any useful information about the inhabitants and their military tactics, or about harbours he could use, presumably not wanting to lose their monopoly on cross-channel trade. He sent a tribune, Gaius Volusenus, to scout the coast in a single warship. He probably examined the Kent coast between Hythe and Sandwich, but was unable to land, since he "did not dare leave his ship and entrust himself to the barbarians", and after five days returned to give Caesar what intelligence he had managed to gather.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: By then, ambassadors from some of the British states, warned by merchants of the impending invasion, had arrived promising their submission. Caesar sent them back, along with his ally Commius, king of the Belgae Atrebates, to use their influence to win over as many other states as possible.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: He gathered a fleet consisting of eighty transport ships, sufficient to carry two legions (Legio VII and Legio X), and an unknown number of warships under a quaestor, at an unnamed port in the territory of the Morini, almost certainly Portus Itius (Boulogne). Another eighteen transports of cavalry were to sail from a different port, probably Ambleteuse. These ships may have been triremes or biremes, or may have been adapted from Venetic designs Caesar had seen previously, or may even have been requisitioned from the Veneti and other coastal tribes. Clearly in a hurry, Caesar himself left a garrison at the port and set out "at the third watch" – well after midnight – on 23 August with the legions, leaving the cavalry to march to their ships, embark, and join him as soon as possible. In light of later events, this was either a tactical mistake or (along with the fact that the legions came over without baggage or heavy siege gear) confirms the invasion was not intended for complete conquest.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Caesar's first trip into Britain was less an invasion than an expedition. He took only two legions; his cavalry auxiliaries were unable to make the crossing despite several attempts. Caesar crossed late in the season, and in great haste, leaving well after midnight on 23 August. Initially, he planned to land somewhere in Kent, but the Britons were waiting for him. He moved up the coast and landed—modern archeological finds suggest at Pegwell Bay—but the Britons had kept pace and fielded an impressive force, including cavalry and chariots. The legions were hesitant to go ashore. Eventually, the X legion's standard bearer jumped into the sea and waded to shore. To have the legion's standard fall in combat was the greatest humiliation, and the men disembarked to protect the standard bearer. After some delay, a battle line was finally formed, and the Britons withdrew. Because the Roman cavalry had not made the crossing, Caesar could not chase down the Britons. The Romans' luck did not improve, and a Roman foraging party was ambushed. The Britons took this as a sign of Roman weakness and amassed a large force to assault them. A short battle ensued, though Caesar provides no details beyond indicating the Romans prevailed. Again, the lack of cavalry to chase down the fleeing Britons prevented a decisive victory. The campaigning season was now nearly over, and the legions were in no condition to winter on the coast of Kent. Caesar withdrew back across the Channel.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Caesar initially tried to land at Dubris (Dover), whose natural harbour had presumably been identified by Volusenus as a suitable landing place. However, when he came in sight of shore, the massed forces of the Britons gathered on the overlooking hills and cliffs dissuaded him from landing there, since the cliffs were so close to the shore that javelins could be thrown down from them onto anyone landing there. After waiting there at anchor "until the ninth hour" (about 3pm) waiting for his supply ships from the second port to come up and meanwhile convening a council of war, he ordered his subordinates to act on their own initiative and then sailed the fleet about North East along the coast to an open beach. The first level beach area after Dover is at Walmer where a memorial is placed.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Recent archaeology by the University of Leicester indicates that the possible landing beach was in Pegwell Bay on the Isle of Thanet, Kent, where artefacts and massive earthworks dating from this period have been exposed, although this area would not have been the first easy landing site seen after Dover. If Caesar had as large a fleet with him as has been suggested, then it is possible that the beaching of ships would have been spread out over a number of miles stretching from Walmer towards Pegwell Bay.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Having been tracked all the way along the coast by the British cavalry and chariots, the landing was opposed. To make matters worse, the loaded Roman ships were too low in the water to go close inshore and the troops had to disembark in deep water, all the while attacked by the enemy from the shallows. The troops were reluctant, but according to Caesar's account were led by the "aquilifer" (standard-bearer, whose name is not provided by Caesar) of the 10th legion who jumped in first as an example, shouting:


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: The British were eventually driven back with "catapultae" and slings fired from the warships into the exposed flank of their formation and the Romans managed to land and drive them off. The cavalry, delayed by adverse winds, still had not arrived, so the Britons could not be pursued and finished off, and Caesar could not enjoy what he calls, in his usual self-promoting style, his "accustomed success".


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: The Romans established a camp of which archaeological traces have been found, received ambassadors and had Commius, who had been arrested as soon as he had arrived in Britain, returned to them. Caesar claims he was negotiating from a position of strength and that the British leaders, blaming their attacks on him on the common people, were in only four days awed into giving hostages, some immediately, some as soon as they could be brought from inland, and disbanding their army. However, after his cavalry had come within sight of the beachhead but then been scattered and turned back to Gaul by storms, and with food running short, Caesar, a native of the Mediterranean, was taken by surprise by high British tides and a storm. His beached warships filled with water, and his transports, riding at anchor, were driven against each other. Some ships were wrecked, and many others were rendered unseaworthy by the loss of rigging or other vital equipment, threatening the return journey.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Realising this and hoping to keep Caesar in Britain over the winter and thus starve him into submission, the Britons renewed the attack, ambushing one of the legions as it foraged near the Roman camp. The foraging party was relieved by the remainder of the Roman force and the Britons were again driven off, only to regroup after several days of storms with a larger force to attack the Roman camp. This attack was driven off fully, in a bloody rout, with improvised cavalry that Commius had gathered from pro-Roman Britons and a Roman scorched earth policy.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Gilliver notes that Caesar once again narrowly escaped disaster. Taking an understrength army with few provisions to a far-off land was a poor tactical decision, which easily could have led to Caesar's defeat yet he survived. While he had achieved no significant gains in Britain, he had accomplished a monumental feat simply by landing there. It was a fabulous propaganda victory as well, which was chronicled in Caesar's ongoing "Commentarii de Bello Gallico". The writings in the "Commentarii" fed Rome a steady update of Caesar's exploits (with his own personal spin on events). Caesar's goal of prestige and publicity succeeded enormously: upon his return to Rome, he was hailed as a hero and given an unprecedented 20-day thanksgiving. He now began planning for a proper invasion of Britain.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: The British once again sent ambassadors and Caesar, although he doubled the number of hostages, realised he could not hold out any longer and dared not risk a stormy winter crossing. Caesar had set out late in the campaigning season and the winter was approaching, and so he allowed them to be delivered to him in Gaul, to which he returned with as many of the ships as could be repaired with flotsam from the wrecked ships. Even then, only two tribes felt sufficiently threatened by Caesar to actually send the hostages, and two of his transports were separated from the main body and made landfall elsewhere.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: If the invasion was intended as a full-scale campaign, invasion or occupation, it had failed, and if it is seen as a reconnaissance-in-force or a show of strength to deter further British aid to the Gauls, it had fallen short. Nonetheless, going to Britain beyond the "known world" carried such kudos for a Roman that the Senate decreed a "supplicatio" (thanksgiving) of twenty days when they received Caesar's report. It is also suggested that this invasion established alliances with British kings in the area which smoothed the later invasion of AD 43.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Caesar's pretext for the invasion was that "in almost all the wars with the Gauls succours had been furnished to our enemy from that country". This is plausible, although it may also have been a cover for investigating Britain's mineral resources and economic potential: afterwards, Cicero refers to the disappointing discovery that there was no gold or silver in the island; and Suetonius reports that Caesar was said to have gone to Britain in search of pearls.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Caesar's approach towards Britain in 54 BC was far more comprehensive and successful than his initial expedition. New ships had been built over the winter, and Caesar now took five legions and 2,000 cavalry. He left the rest of his army in Gaul to keep order. Caesar took with him a good number of Gallic chiefs whom he considered untrustworthy so he could keep an eye on them.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: A second invasion was planned in the winter of 55–54 for the summer of 54 BC. Cicero wrote letters to his friend Gaius Trebatius Testa and his brother Quintus, both of whom were serving in Caesar's army, expressing his excitement at the prospect. He urged Trebatius to capture him a war chariot, and asked Quintus to write him a description of the island. Trebatius, as it turned out, did not go to Britain, but Quintus did, and wrote him several letters from there – as did Caesar himself.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Determined not to make the same mistakes as the previous year, Caesar gathered a larger force than on his previous expedition with five legions as opposed to two, plus two thousand cavalry, carried in ships which he designed, with experience of Venetic shipbuilding technology so as to be more suitable for a beach landing than those used in 55 BC, being broader and lower for easier beaching. This time he named Portus Itius as the departure point.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Titus Labienus was left at Portus Itius to oversee regular food transports from there to the British beachhead. The military ships were joined by a flotilla of trading ships captained by Romans and provincials from across the empire, and local Gauls, hoping to cash in on the trading opportunities. It seems more likely that the figure Caesar quotes for the fleet (800 ships) include these traders and the troop-transports, rather than the troop-transports alone.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Caesar landed at the place he had identified as the best landing-place the previous year. The Britons did not oppose the landing, apparently, as Caesar states, intimidated by the size of the fleet, but this may have been a strategic ploy to give them time to gather their forces.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Caesar landed without resistance and immediately went to find the Britonic army. The Britons used guerilla tactics to avoid a direct confrontation. This allowed them to gather a formidable army under Cassivellaunus, king of the Catuvellauni. The Britonic army had superior mobility due to its cavalry and chariots, which easily allowed them to evade and harass the Romans. The Britons attacked a foraging party, hoping to pick off the isolated group, but the party fought back fiercely and thoroughly defeated the Britons. They mostly gave up resistance at this point, and a great many tribes surrendered and offered tribute. The Romans assaulted Cassivellaunus' stronghold (likely modern day Wheathampstead), and he surrendered.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Upon landing, Caesar left Quintus Atrius in charge of the beach-head and made an immediate night march inland, where he encountered the British forces at a river crossing, probably somewhere on the River Stour. The Britons attacked but were repulsed, and attempted to regroup at a fortified place in the forests, possibly the hillfort at Bigbury Wood, Kent, but were again defeated and scattered. As it was late in the day and Caesar was unsure of the territory, he called off the pursuit and made camp.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: However, the next morning, as he prepared to advance further, Caesar received word from Atrius that, once again, his ships at anchor had been dashed against each other in a storm and suffered considerable damage. About forty, he says, were lost. The Romans were unused to Atlantic and Channel tides and storms, but nevertheless, considering the damage he had sustained the previous year, this was poor planning on Caesar's part. However, Caesar may have exaggerated the number of ships wrecked to magnify his own achievement in rescuing the situation. He returned to the coast, recalling the legions that had gone ahead, and immediately set about repairing his fleet. His men worked day and night for approximately ten days, beaching and repairing the ships, and building a fortified camp around them. Word was sent to Labienus to send more ships.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Caesar was on the coast on 1 September, from where he wrote a letter to Cicero. News must have reached Caesar at this point of the death of his daughter Julia, as Cicero refrained from replying "on account of his mourning".


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Caesar then returned to the Stour crossing and found the Britons had massed their forces there. Cassivellaunus, a warlord from north of the Thames, had previously been at war with most of the British tribes. He had recently overthrown the king of the powerful Trinovantes and forced his son, Mandubracius, into exile. But now, facing invasion, the Britons had appointed Cassivellaunus to lead their combined forces. After several indecisive skirmishes, during which a Roman tribune, Quintus Laberius Durus, was killed, the Britons attacked a foraging party of three legions under Gaius Trebonius, but were repulsed and routed by the pursuing Roman cavalry.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Cassivellaunus realised he could not defeat Caesar in a pitched battle. Disbanding the majority of his force and relying on the mobility of his 4,000 chariots and superior knowledge of the terrain, he used guerrilla tactics to slow the Roman advance. By the time Caesar reached the Thames, the one fordable place available to him had been fortified with sharpened stakes, both on the shore and under the water, and the far bank was defended. Second Century sources state that Caesar used a large war elephant, which was equipped with armour and carried archers and slingers in its tower, to put the defenders to flight. When this unknown creature entered the river, the Britons and their horses fled and the Roman army crossed over and entered Cassivellaunus' territory. (However, this may be a confusion with Claudius's use of elephants during his conquest of Britain in AD 43.)


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: The Trinovantes, whom Caesar describes as the most powerful tribe in the region, and who had recently suffered at Cassivellaunus' hands, sent ambassadors, promising him aid and provisions. Mandubracius, who had accompanied Caesar, was restored as their king, and the Trinovantes provided grain and hostages. Five further tribes, the Cenimagni, Segontiaci, Ancalites, Bibroci and Cassi, surrendered to Caesar, and revealed to him the location of Cassivellaunus' stronghold, possibly the hill fort at Wheathampstead, which he proceeded to put under siege.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Cassivellaunus sent word to his allies in Kent, Cingetorix, Carvilius, Taximagulus and Segovax, described as the "four kings of Cantium", to stage a diversionary attack on the Roman beach-head to draw Caesar off, but this attack failed, and Cassivellaunus sent ambassadors to negotiate a surrender. Caesar was eager to return to Gaul for the winter due to growing unrest there, and an agreement was mediated by Commius. Cassivellaunus gave hostages, agreed an annual tribute, and undertook not to make war against Mandubracius or the Trinovantes. Caesar wrote to Cicero on 26 September, confirming the result of the campaign, with hostages but no booty taken, and that his army was about to return to Gaul. He then left, leaving not a single Roman soldier in Britain to enforce his settlement. Whether the tribute was ever paid is unknown.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Caesar extracted payment of grain, slaves, and an annual tribute to Rome. However, Britain was not particularly rich at the time; Marcus Cicero summed up Roman sentiment by saying, "It's also been established that there isn't a scrap of silver in the island and no hope of booty except for slaves and I don't suppose you're expecting them to know much about literature or music!" Regardless, this second trip to Britain was a true invasion, and Caesar achieved his goals. He had beaten the Britons and extracted tribute; they were now effectively Roman subjects. Caesar was lenient towards the tribes as he needed to leave before the stormy season set in, which would make crossing the channel impossible.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Commius later switched sides, fighting in Vercingetorix's rebellion. After a number of unsuccessful engagements with Caesar's forces, he cut his losses and fled to Britain. Sextus Julius Frontinus, in his "Strategemata", describes how Commius and his followers, with Caesar in pursuit, boarded their ships. Although the tide was out and the ships still beached, Commius ordered the sails raised. Caesar, still some distance away, assumed the ships were afloat and called off the pursuit. John Creighton (archaeologist) believes that this anecdote was a legend, and that Commius was sent to Britain as a friendly king as part of his truce with Mark Antony. Commius established a dynasty in the Hampshire area, known from coins of Gallo-Belgic type. Verica, the king whose exile prompted Claudius's conquest of AD 43, styled himself a son of Commius.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: As well as noting elements of British warfare, particularly the use of chariots, which were unfamiliar to his Roman audience, Caesar also aimed to impress them by making further geographical, meteorological and ethnographic investigations of Britain. He probably gained these by enquiry and hearsay rather than direct experience, as he did not penetrate that far into the interior, and most historians would be wary of applying them beyond the tribes with whom he came into direct contact.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Caesar's first-hand discoveries were limited to east Kent and the Thames Valley, but he was able to provide a description of the island's geography and meteorology. Though his measurements are not wholly accurate, and may owe something to Pytheas, his general conclusions even now seem valid:


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: No information about harbours or other landing-places was available to the Romans before Caesar's expeditions, so Caesar was able to make discoveries of benefit to Roman military and trading interests. Volusenus's reconnaissance voyage before the first expedition apparently identified the natural harbour at Dubris (Dover), although Caesar was prevented from landing there and forced to land on an open beach, as he did again the following year, perhaps because Dover was too small for his much larger forces. The great natural harbours further up the coast at Rutupiae (Richborough), which were used by Claudius for his invasion 100 years later, were not used on either occasion. Caesar may have been unaware of them, may have chosen not to use them, or they may not have existed in a form suitable for sheltering and landing such a large force at that time. Present knowledge of the period geomorphology of the Wantsum Channel that created that haven is limited.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: By Claudius's time Roman knowledge of the island would have been considerably increased by a century of trade and diplomacy, and four abortive invasion attempts. However, it is likely that the intelligence gathered in 55 and 54 BC would have been retained in the now-lost state records in Rome, and been used by Claudius in the planning of his landings.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: The Britons are defined as typical barbarians, with polygamy and other exotic social habits, similar in many ways to the Gauls, yet as brave adversaries whose crushing can bring glory to a Roman:


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: In addition to infantry and cavalry, the Britons employed chariots in warfare, a novelty to the Romans, who used them for transport and racing. Caesar describes their use as follows:


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: During the civil war, Caesar made use of a kind of boat he had seen used in Britain, similar to the Irish currach or Welsh coracle. He describes them thus:


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Caesar not only investigates this for the sake of it, but also to justify Britain as a rich source of tribute and trade:


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: This reference to the 'midland' is inaccurate as tin production and trade occurred in the southwest of England, in Cornwall and Devon, and was what drew Pytheas and other traders. However, Caesar only penetrated to Essex and so, receiving reports of the trade whilst there, it would have been easy to perceive the trade as coming from the interior.


title: Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

text: Caesar made no conquests in Britain, but his enthroning of Mandubracius marked the beginnings of a system of client kingdoms there, thus bringing the island into Rome's sphere of political influence. Diplomatic and trading links developed further over the next century, opening up the possibility of permanent conquest, which was finally begun by Claudius in AD 43. In the words of Tacitus:


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

text: The Japanese government confirmed the country's first case of the disease on 16 January 2020 in a resident of Kanagawa Prefecture who had returned from Wuhan, China. The first known death from COVID-19 was recorded in Japan on 14 February 2020. Both were followed by a second outbreak introduced by travelers and returnees from Europe and the United States between 11 March 2020 and 23 March 2020. According to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, the majority of viruses spreading in the country derive from the European type, while those of the Wuhan type began disappearing in March 2020.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

text: On 5 October 2020, the number of confirmed cases in Japan exceeded the number of confirmed cases in China, and at the end of the month, the number of confirmed cases in the country crossed the 100,000-mark. The number of confirmed cases in Japan also crossed the 200,000-mark on 22 December 2020, the 300,000-mark on 14 January 2021, the 400,000-mark on 6 February 2021, the 500,000-mark on 11 April 2021, the 600,000-mark on 3 May 2021, the 700,000-mark on 21 May 2021, the 800,000-mark on 2 July 2021 and the 900,000-mark on 30 July 2021. At the end of 2020, there were about 230,000 COVID-19 cases in the country, nearly 2.7 times the number of COVID-19 cases in China. On 16 January 2021, the first anniversary of the beginning of the pandemic in Japan was commemorated. It was two days after the number of confirmed cases in the country exceeded 300,000. On 27 April 2021, the number of deaths in Japan crossed the 10,000-mark. The number of confirmed cases in the country exceeded the number of confirmed cases in Portugal on 6 August 2021 and crossed the one-million-mark the following day. By the time the 2020 Summer Paralympics ended, there were more than a million cases in Japan. On 25 September 2021, the number of confirmed cases in the country exceeded the number of confirmed cases in the Czech Republic. More than a week later, on 5 October 2021, the first anniversary of the day when the number of confirmed cases in Japan exceeded the number of confirmed cases in China.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

text: Tokyo is the most affected prefecture in Japan, with nearly 380,000 cases. The country also joined the list of 40 countries with the most COVID-19 cases on 9 January 2021, a few months after becoming the most affected country in East Asia by overtaking China in terms of the number of infections. About seven months later, on 14 August 2021, Japan joined the list of 30 countries with the most COVID-19 cases, a week after the number of confirmed cases in the country exceeded a million. On 15 September 2021, Japan joined the list of 25 countries with the most COVID-19 cases. Five weeks later, on 20 October 2021, the country left the list of 25 countries with the most COVID-19 cases. On a global scale, cases in Japan constitute about 0.7% of global cases.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

text: The COVID-19 vaccination in Japan began on 17 February 2021, more than a month after the first anniversary of the beginning of the pandemic in the country was commemorated. As of 22 October 2021, about 96.4 million people in Japan received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine while about 86.9 million were fully vaccinated.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

text: The Japanese government adopted various measures to limit or prevent the outbreak. On 30 January 2020, former prime minister Shinzo Abe established the to oversee the government's response to the pandemic. On 27 February 2020, he requested the temporary closure of all Japanese elementary, junior high, and high schools until early April 2020. On 7 April 2020, Abe proclaimed a one-month state of emergency for Tokyo and the prefectures of Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Osaka, Hyogo, and Fukuoka. On 16 April 2020, the declaration was extended to the rest of the country for an indefinite period. The state of emergency was lifted in an increasing number of prefectures during May 2020, extending to the whole country by 25 May 2020.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

text: On 7 January 2021, Suga declared a state of emergency for Tokyo and the prefectures of Chiba, Saitama and Kanagawa effective from 8 January until 7 February. Japan's death rate per capita from coronavirus is one of the lowest in the developed world, despite its aging population. Factors speculated to explain this include the government response, a milder strain of the virus, cultural habits such as bowing etiquette and wearing face masks, hand washing with sanitizing equipment, a protective genetic trait, and a relative immunity conferred by the mandatory BCG tuberculosis vaccine. In December 2021, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare reported the number of excess deaths through July. The excess death toll was 12000 in COVID-19 and 11000 from natural causes due to the aging of the population, but the death toll from pneumonia fell by 5000 as a result of infection control measures taken by people.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

text: The pandemic continued to be a concern for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Although the Japanese government and the International Olympic Committee negotiated its postponement until 2021, reports concluded that a cancellation of the games was still an option – although prime minister Yoshihide Suga dismissed the idea of it happening. In the end, the Olympics went ahead, with sports events running between 23 July and 8 August 2021 and multiple restrictions in place to avoid the breakouts of the virus.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

text: Japan is one of the countries with at least a million COVID-19 cases, as well as the only country in East Asia with at least a million COVID-19 cases. At the beginning of the 2020 Summer Olympics, there were nearly 860,000 cases in the country.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

text: The COVID-19 pandemic in Japan can be divided into five waves based on the genome sequence of the country's COVID-19 virus. The National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) of Japan has determined from its genetic research that the COVID-19 variant of the first wave is derived from the Wuhan type that is prevalent in patients from China and other countries in East Asia. After entering Japan in January 2020 through travelers and returnees from China, the virus caused numerous infection clusters across the country before beginning to subside in March. Japanese medical surveillance confirmed its first case of the virus on 16 January 2020 in a resident of Kanagawa Prefecture who had returned from Wuhan. On 14 February 2020, the country confirmed the first COVID-19 death.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

text: The first wave was followed by a second one that originated from a COVID-19 variant of the European type that is traced back to early patients from France, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Japanese medical surveillance detected the second wave on 26 March 2020 when the government's expert panel concluded the likelihood of a new outbreak caused by travelers and returnees from Europe and the United States between 11 March 2020 and 23 March 2020. The NIID has established that the majority of viruses spreading in Japan since March is the European type. This has led it to conclude that the data "strongly suggests" that the Japanese government has succeeded in containing the Wuhan variant and that it is the European variant that is spreading across the country.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

text: In terms of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, Japan overtook China on 5 October 2020 and became the most affected country in East Asia. The country also reached the first two grim milestones of 100,000 COVID-19 cases at the end of October 2020 and 200,000 cases on 22 December 2020. At the end of 2020, there were about 230,000 cases in Japan, which was nearly 2.7 times the number of cases in China. On 14 January 2021, the country reached the third grim milestone of 300,000 cases, two days before the first anniversary of the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Six days later, Japan overtook China in terms of the number of COVID-19 deaths. The country also reached the fourth grim milestone of 400,000 cases on 6 February 2021. About two months later, on 11 April 2021, Japan reached the fifth grim milestone of 500,000 cases. The total number of COVID-19 deaths in the country exceeded 10,000 on 27 April 2021. On 3 May 2021, Japan reached the sixth grim milestone of 600,000 cases. About two weeks later, the country reached the seventh grim milestone of 700,000 cases. Japan also reached the eighth grim milestone of 800,000 cases on 2 July 2021, three weeks before the opening ceremony of the rescheduled 2020 Summer Olympics. Four weeks later, the country reached the ninth grim milestone of 900,000 cases. It was a week after the 2020 Summer Olympics began. Japan also overtook Portugal in terms of the number of cases on 6 August 2021, two days before the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. On 7 August 2021, the country reached the tenth grim milestone of a million cases. The following day, there were more than a million cases in Japan by the time the 2020 Summer Olympics ended. On 25 September 2021, the country overtook Czech Republic in terms of the number of cases.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

text: On 30 July 2021, there were more than 10,000 new confirmed cases of coronavirus reported as the country experienced a fifth wave of infections.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

text: The trend of case fatality rate for COVID-19 from 16 January, the day first case in the country was recorded.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

text: The initial response of the Japanese government to the COVID-19 outbreak was a policy of containment that focused on the repatriation of Japanese citizens from Wuhan, the point of origin of the pandemic, and the introduction of new border control regulations.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

text: On 24 January 2020, Abe convened the Ministerial Meeting on Countermeasures Related to the Novel Coronavirus at the Prime Minister's Office with members of his Cabinet in response to a statement by the World Health Organization (WHO) confirming human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus. Abe announced that he would introduce appropriate countermeasures to the disease in coordination with the NIID.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

text: On 27 January 2020, Abe designated the new coronavirus as an "infectious disease" under the Infectious Diseases Control Law, which allows the government to order patients with COVID-19 to undergo hospitalization. He also designated the disease as a "quarantinable infectious disease" under the Quarantine Act, which allows the government to quarantine people suspected of infection and order them to undergo diagnosis and treatment.