1923 Great Kantō earthquake in the context of "Kamakura"

⭐ In the context of Kamakura, the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake is considered…

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⭐ Core Definition: 1923 Great Kantō earthquake

The Great Kantō Earthquake (Japanese: 関東大地震, romanizedKantō daijishin or 関東大震災, Kantō daishinsai) was a megathrust earthquake that struck the Kantō Plain on the main Japanese island of Honshu at 11:58:32 JST (02:58:32 UTC) on Saturday, 1 September 1923. It had an approximate magnitude of 8.0 on the moment magnitude scale (Mw), with its epicenter located some 100 km (62 mi) southwest of the capital Tokyo. The earthquake devastated Tokyo, the port city of Yokohama, and surrounding prefectures of Kanagawa, Chiba, and Shizuoka, and caused widespread damage throughout the Kantō region.

The event was a complex disaster, with modern research indicating it consisted of three consecutive shocks in the span of several minutes. The initial megathrust event in Kanagawa Prefecture was followed three minutes later by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake centered beneath Tokyo Bay, and two minutes after that by a magnitude 7.3 shock in Yamanashi Prefecture. Fires, exacerbated by strong winds from a nearby typhoon, spread rapidly through the densely populated urban areas, accounting for the majority of the devastation and casualties. The death toll is estimated to have been between 105,000 and 140,000 people, including tens of thousands who went missing and were presumed dead. Over half of Tokyo and nearly all of Yokohama were destroyed, leaving approximately 2.5 million people homeless. The disaster triggered widespread social unrest, including the Kantō Massacre, in which ethnic Koreans and others mistaken for them were murdered by vigilante groups based on false rumors.

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👉 1923 Great Kantō earthquake in the context of Kamakura

Kamakura (鎌倉, Kamakura; [kamakɯɾa] ), officially Kamakura City (鎌倉市, Kamakura-shi), is a city of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. It is located in the Kanto region on the island of Honshu. The city has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 people per km over the total area of 39.67 km (15.32 sq mi). Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939.

Kamakura was Japan's de facto capital when it was the seat of the Kamakura shogunate from 1185 to 1333, established by Minamoto no Yoritomo. It was the first military government in Japan's history. After the downfall of the shogunate, Kamakura saw a temporary decline. However, during the Edo period, it regained popularity as a tourist destination among the townspeople of Edo. Despite suffering significant losses of historical and cultural assets due to the Great Kantō Earthquake in 1923, Kamakura continues to be one of the major tourist attractions in the Kanto region, known for its historical landmarks such as Tsurugaoka Hachimangū and the Great Buddha of Kamakura.

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1923 Great Kantō earthquake in the context of Tokyo City

Tokyo City (東京市, Tōkyō-shi) was a municipality in Japan and capital of Tokyo Prefecture (or Tokyo-fu) which existed from 1 May 1889 until the establishment of Tokyo Metropolis on 1 July 1943. The historical boundaries of Tokyo City are now occupied by the special wards of Tokyo. The defunct city and its prefecture became what is now Tokyo, also known as the Tokyo Metropolis or, ambiguously, Tokyo Prefecture.

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1923 Great Kantō earthquake in the context of Yamanote and Shitamachi

Yamanote (山の手; Japanese pronunciation: [ja.ma.no(ꜜ).te]) and Shitamachi (下町; [ɕi̥.ta.ma.tɕi]) are traditional names for two areas of Tokyo, Japan.

Yamanote refers to the affluent, upper-class areas of Tokyo west of the Imperial Palace. While citizens once considered it as consisting of Hongo, Kōjimachi, Koishikawa, Ushigome, Yotsuya, Akasaka, Aoyama and Azabu in the Bunkyō, Chiyoda, Shinjuku, and Minato wards, in popular conception, the area extended westwards to include the Nakano, Suginami, and Meguro wards after the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923.

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1923 Great Kantō earthquake in the context of Kantō Massacre

The Kantō Massacre (關東大虐殺; Korean간토 대학살) was a mass murder in the Kantō region of Japan committed in the aftermath of the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. With the explicit and implicit approval of parts of the Japanese government, the Japanese military, police, and vigilantes murdered an estimated 6,000 people: mainly ethnic Koreans, but also Chinese and misidentified Japanese, and Japanese communists, socialists, and anarchists.

The massacre began on the day of the earthquake, September 1, 1923, and continued for three weeks. A significant number of incidents occurred, including the Fukuda Village Incident.

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1923 Great Kantō earthquake in the context of Omotesando Hills

Omotesando Hills (表参道ヒルズ, Omotesandō hiruzu) is a shopping complex in central Tokyo built in 2005 in a series of urban developments by Mori Building. It occupies a 250-meter stretch of Omotesandō, a shopping and (previously) residential road in Aoyama. It was designed by Tadao Ando, and contains over 130 shops and 38 apartments.

The construction of Omotesando Hills, built at a cost of $330 million, was marked by controversy. The building replaced the Bauhaus-inspired Dōjunkai Aoyama Apartments, which had been built in 1927 after the 1923 Kantō earthquake. The demolition of the apartments again raised questions about Japan's interest in preserving historic buildings. A small section of the old apartments is reconstructed in the south-east part of the new complex. Minoru Mori noted that there had been resistance from local landowners to the use of Ando as architect, saying that they were concerned that his buildings were too fashionable for the area. Regarding the construction, Ando said, "It's not Tadao Ando as an architect who has decided to rebuild and make shops, it was the owners themselves who wanted it to be new housing and to get some value with shops below. My task was how to do it in the best way.”

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1923 Great Kantō earthquake in the context of Emperor Taishō

Yoshihito (嘉仁; 31 August 1879 – 25 December 1926), posthumously honored as Emperor Taishō (大正天皇, Taishō Tennō), was the 123rd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 1912 until his death in 1926. His reign, known as the Taishō era, was characterized by a liberal and democratic shift in domestic political power, known as Taishō Democracy. Yoshihito also oversaw Japan's participation in the First World War from 1914 to 1918, the Spanish flu pandemic, and the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923.

Born to Emperor Meiji and his concubine Yanagiwara Naruko, Yoshihito was proclaimed crown prince and heir apparent in 1888, his two older siblings having died in infancy. He suffered various health problems as a child, including meningitis soon after his birth. In 1900, he married Sadako Kujō, a member of the Kujō family of the Fujiwara clan; the couple had four sons. In 1912, Yoshihito became emperor upon the death of his father, but as he suffered from neurological issues for much of his life, he played only a limited role in politics and undertook no official duties from 1919. His declining health led to appointment of his eldest son, Crown Prince Hirohito, as regent in 1921, and Hirohito succeeded him as emperor when he died in 1926.

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1923 Great Kantō earthquake in the context of Koreans in Japan

Koreans in Japan (在日韓国人・在日本朝鮮人・朝鮮人, Zainichi Kankokujin/Zainihon Chōsenjin/Chōsenjin) (Korean재일 한국/조선인) are ethnic Koreans who immigrated to Japan before 1945 and are citizens or permanent residents of Japan, or who are descendants of those immigrants. They are a group distinct from South Korean nationals who have immigrated to Japan since the end of World War II and the division of Korea.

They currently constitute the third largest ethnic minority group in Japan after Chinese immigrants. Their population declined significantly due to death, returning to Korea, and assimilating into the general Japanese population. The majority of Koreans in Japan are Zainichi Koreans (在日韓国・朝鮮人, Zainichi Kankoku/Chōsenjin), often known simply as Zainichi (在日; lit. 'in Japan'), who are ethnic Korean permanent residents of Japan. The term Zainichi Korean refers only to long-term Korean residents of Japan who trace their roots to Korea under Japanese rule, distinguishing them from the later wave of Korean migrants who came mostly in the 1980s, and from pre-modern immigrants dating back to antiquity, possibly including the Yayoi people who constitute the biggest ancestral group of the Japanese people.

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