Japan's Interesting Places:Tokyo

Hello everybody and welcome to the first edition of *Japan's Interesting Places.* Here is where we talk about some of Japan's sites which give Japan its history and its beauty.

On this page, we talk about the biggest city in Japan. Tokyo.

Tokyo, Japan's capital, and one of the biggest and most elaborate cities in the far east. Tokyo began its life as a small fishing village on the mouth of the Sumida River. With the help of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the USA, it became an enormous metropolis with a size that is bigger than both New York and Los Angeles put together.

But how did it happen? This is what this page will try to cover.

## The little known village

The origins if how Edo began is sketchy at best. But nearest the page can tell is that it began in the year 1457 when Edo Castle was built. Since then, it became a small, lesser-known fishing village with only a few hundred people living in it.

During the Sengoku Jidai (Japan's warring period), Edo was a part of the region that was held by the Hojo Clan. It wouldn't until sometime in the 1590s where the Hojo fought against the coalition of Toyotomi and Tokugawa. The Hojo were wiped out and the Kanto region was now under the Toyotomi banner (as well as the majority of Japan). As a part of Hideyoshi's appreciation and helping out his clan taking Japan. Ieyasu was given the fishing village of Tokyo, and Ieyasu even added onto Edo Castle to make it his domain.

When Hideyoshi died in 1598, he left the ruling duties to his 5 loyal retainers (including Ieyasu), but quickly turned into a power struggle between Ieyasu and one of Hideoyoshi's retainer: *Mitsunari Ishida*. By October of 1600, the warlords of Japan they are following either Ieyasu and Mitsunari gathered at Sekigahara, after a few, short and violent hours, the biggest Samurai battle in Japan's history was over, and Ieyasu now controls all of Japan. With this, Edo becomes the "de facto" capital of Japan.

## The fast-growing city

In 1603, Ieyasu becomes the Shogun, and because Edo is his domain, it becomes the de facto capital of the now Tokugawa controlled Japan. During the Tokugawa shogunate, Edo would become the political hub of all Japan. But it wouldn't be until the ruling of Iemitsu (Ieyasu's grandson) who made it mandatory for Japan's warlords that swear allegiance to the Tokugawa to spend one half a year in Edo and another half a year in their domains, their families, however, would have to stay in Edo.

With this, Edo would immensely grow in both population and size. By 1720, Edo would have over 1 Million people, rivaling that of any major city in Europe and China at the time.

Though, the city's bubble would eventually burst by the 19th century as Japan would enter an economic decline.

## A "Real" Capital

In 1853, Japan would get a visit from an unsuspected guest: in the form of an American Commodore named *Matthew C. Perry* who has a fleet the likes Japan has never seen before. Perry's fleet wouldn't land in any of the designated ports in Japan (as it was a closed country at the time) but sailed in the harbor in Edo. He gives Japan his ultimatum: "Either Japan opens up to trade, or he'll take the nation by force." A few months later, he comes back. Japan knowing that they couldn't face Parry's forces, and even feeling the need to modernize, complies with Perry's demands. Japan opens up to trade, and eventually, a trade agreement free-for-all happens as Britain, France, and Russia also demands trade relations with Japan.

Along with the good that came with Japan re-opening, also came the bad, in the form of a series of civil wars in Japan such as the *Boshin War*, *The Meiji Restoration* (which overthrew the Tokugawa Shogunate)*,*and the *Satsuma Rebellion*. The Emperor of the time (Meiji) with his modernized army defeated the old Samurai Clans and restored the Emperor as the ruler of Japan. During Meiji modernization, Edo was made an "official" capital of Japan, and then it was re-named *"Tokyo"* ("Eastern Capital").

The city would also begin to modernize as western railroads were built and even modern westernized skyscrapers.

## World War 2/Disasters

Tokyo continues to grow in size and population, even going into the 20th Century as is Japan is growing in power as they conquer the Korean Peninsula after winning wars against China and Russia. By 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria and invaded the rest of China 6 years later.

On December 7, 1941, Japan took it a step further and wanted to attack an American Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, thus forcing the USA into World War 2. But they would focus on Nazi Germany first. Eventually, they would turn their attention to Japan as they would send short-range bombers to bomb Tokyo. Though, the damage was minimal but affected morale in the Japanese military. But the worst is yet to come.

Now, we'll take a few minutes to talk about some of the disasters that Tokyo faced in its history. In 1657, Tokyo faced with possibly its worst "accidental" fire called *"Meireiki"* which killed 100,000 people. In 1923, the Great Kanto Earthquake left most of the city in ruins and killed 140,000 people.

In March of 1945, and with the USA inching ever closer to Japan, the USA begin to firebomb Japan's cities. Tokyo felt the full force of these raids as most of the city was burned to the ground and over 200,000 people would lose their lives. The city's residents, as well as the rest of Japan, would call the Firebombing of Tokyo *"The Night of the Black Snow"* because the black-colored, burning debris would fall to the ground like snow. The Firebombing of Tokyo would cause more death and destruction to Japan than the Atomic Bombs dropped on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Those Atomic Bombs would be dropped in August of 1945, a month later, Japan surrenders. Coming into Tokyo Harbor was the US Battleship *"USS Missouri"* on board was the famed American General Douglas MacArthur who accepted Japan's surrender.

## Modern Era/More disasters

With aid from the USA's 8-Year occupation of the country, Tokyo quickly and surely was recovering from the devastation from World War 2 as was the rest of Japan. In 1964, the city would host the Modern Olympic Events.

By the 1980s, Tokyo would grow into a truly modern city as Japan's economy boomed with the distribution of the VCR and even video game consoles.

But still, the city is no stranger to disaster. In March of 1995, a group of Japanese Terrorists would attack the early morning Tokyo commute and used Sarin Gas (a Toxic Gas which affects the human nervous system) to toxify a Tokyo Subway line, this attack killed at least 13 people. Japan's economic bubble would also eventually burst by the late 1990s and Tokyo would also be affected.

Tokyo would eventually recover from both the Sarin Gas Attack and the bursting of Japan's economic bubble by the dawn of the 21st century, and throughout the 2000s, the city was doing quite well. But, on March 11, 2011. Not just Tokyo, but Eastern Japan would face a double disaster, a Magnitude 9 Earthquake and Tsunami would hit offshore of Japan's Tohoku Region. Tokyo would suffer some damage but remain largely unaffected, especially after the partial meltdown of the *Fukushima-Daichi Nuclear Plant*, though some radiation was in the air around the city for a while.

Despite the devastation of the Coronavirus, Tokyo would once again host the Olympic Events which would take place in 2020 (the first Asian city to hold the events twice) but would hold them in 2021 due to the virus.

That is it for this page. You can check out my other Wiki pages, and don't forget to check out my Games and Movies wikis too. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.