Tokyo, Japan - Part II

Before reading this part, I suggest you to read Part I that gives you some insight about modern Tokyo. This section talks about the history of Tokyo, religion and world war II.

History of Tokyo

The history of Tokyo gives us a picture of how the city grew from a small fishing village to a major financial giant. the history of Tokyo goes back to nearly 400years. The city was known as Edo which was a fishing village. The city was constructed in 1457, when Ota Dokan, a vassal of Uesugi Mochitomo, built the Edo Castle. The city gained its importance and started to flourish from 1590 onwards under the rule of Tokugawa Leyasu in 1603. During the Edo period, the great fire of the Meireki destroyed a major part of Asakusa and the Edo castle. During the 18th century, the city grew and became the cultural and polital center of Japan.

In 1868 after the Meiji restoration, Emperor Meiji took over the city and renamed it to Tokyo, which means easter capital. Since then it became the permanent home of the imperial dynasty of Japan. In 1871, the emperor abolished the feudal han system and set up the prefectural system in Tokyo. The Great Kanto earthquake was a major natural disaster in the history of Tokyo, which occurred in 1923 and killed around 70,000 people.

During world war II, the city experienced heavy bombing, which damaged major portions of the city. During that period the city was under military control and also controlled by the allied forces. It became a major military base during this time. Between 1950 to 1960, the city experienced extensive economic growth. Industries grew and infrastructure was developed. From 1970 onwards, the city grew at an alarming rate and by 1980, it became one of the most developed cities of the world. The modern history of Tokyo is filled with tales of growth and development.

The history of Tokyo traces the growth of the city into a major financial and advanced city of the world.

Language

If we want to travel to Tokyo, it is better to know the language of the city in order to communicate with the local people. Japanese is the official language. The best method of communicating with local people is through Japanese. However, English is also widely spoken. Tokyo is one of the major global city in the world, which makes English as one of the common dialects after Japanese. Japanese is written with a combination of three scripts: Chinese characters, two syllabic scripts of modified chinese characters and Katakana.

Katakana is a simple form of the Japanese language and easy to learn. Many words are similar to English language and easy to understand. The script is characterized by short straight strokes with angular curves.

Some useful Japanese phrases are:

Good morning - ohayo gozaimasu

Good afternoon - konnichiwa

How are you - o-genki desu ka?

Good bye - Sayonara

Excuse me - sumimasen

Thank you - arigato gozaimasu

Yes - hai

No - lie

Apart from these two languages Chinese and Korean are other two which can be heard in the city. The city also has many Filipino speakers.

Music

Japan is the second largest music market in the world after United States. The oldest form of Japanese music are shomyo, buddhist chanting and gagku. Gagaku is a classical music that has been performed at the Imperial court since Heian period.

Islands of Japan

There are four main islands of Japan

• Hokkaido - It is the north part of Japan. It is the second largest island. This island is seismically active. Apart from earthquakes, it has many active volcanos.
• Honshu - It is the largest island of Japan. It is the nation's main island. It includes cities like Tokyo, Kawasaki, Chiba etc.
• Shikoku - It is the smallest island located in the south of Honshu. It includes cities like Osaka, Hiroshima, Okayama etc.
• Kyushu - This is the third largest island of Japan. It includes cities like Nagasaki, Fukuoka, Kagoshima etc.

Mount Fujiyama

Mt. Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan 3,776m approx. It is an active volcano that erupted in 1707. Mt. Fuji lies about 100kms south west of Tokyo and can be seen from the city on a clear day. It is one of Japan's "three holy mountains" along with Mt. tate and Mt. Haku.

Today Mt. Fuji is the international destination for tourism and mountain-climbing. It is surrounded by five lakes: Kawaguchi, yamanaka, lake sai, motosu and shoji. The temp is very low in the high altitudes and the cone is covered with snow for most part of the year.

World war II and atomic bombings on Japan

During the final stages of world war II, USA conducted two atomic bombings against Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan on Aug 6, 1945 and Aug 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date. Earlier than this Japan conducted attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was a surprise military strike conducted by Japanese Navy against US naval base at Pearl Harbor on Dec 7th, 1941 which was Dec 8th in Japan. This attack came as a shock to the American people and led directly to the US entry into World war II. The following day, United States declared war against Japan.

For six months before the atomic bombings, the US intensely fire-bombed 67 Japanese cities. Together with UK and China, the United States called for a surrender of Japan on July 26, 1945. The Japanese government ignored the ultimatum. Hence, by the order of President Harry Truman, the US dropped nuclear weapon on the city of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Within the first to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed more than 90,000 people in Hiroshima and around 80,000 people in Nagasaki. Six days after the detonation over Nagasaki, Japan announced its surrender to the Allied powers, officially ending the pacific war.

Inspite of these disturbances, Japan has stood in front of this world as the most developed and advanced country.

With this post I am concluding my posts on Tokyo, Japan. Hope you enjoyed reading it.

Next week I will be featuring Shanghai, China.