Tokyo
Tokyo's rise to importance can be largely attributed to two men: Tokugawa Ieyasu
and Emperor Meiji. Tokugawa Ieyasu made Edo (the forerunner of Tokyo) his base.
When he became shogun in 1603, the town began to grow into the capital of his
nationwide military government. It became one of the largest cities in the world
with a population topping one million by the 18th century. It became the de
facto capital of Japan even while the emperor lived in Kyoto, the imperial
capital.
After about 263 years, the shogunate was overthrown under the banner of
restoring imperial rule. In 1869, the 17-year-old Emperor Meiji moved to Edo,
which was renamed "Tokyo" ("Eastern Capital") the year before. Tokyo was already
the nation's political, economic, and cultural center, and the emperor's
residence made it a de facto imperial capital as well with the former Edo Castle
becoming the Imperial Palace. The city of Tokyo was established, and continued
to be the capital until it was abolished as a municipality in 1943 and merged
with the "Metropolitan Prefecture" of Tokyo.
Central Tokyo, like Osaka, has been designed since about the turn of the century
(1900) to be centered around major train stations in a high-density fashion, so
suburban railways were built relatively cheaply at street level. This differs
from other world cities, such as Los Angeles, that are low-density and
automobile-centric. Though expressways have been built, the basic design has not
changed to this day.
Tokyo went on to suffer two major catastrophes in the 20th century, but it
recovered from both. One was the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, and the other
was World War II. The firebombings in 1945, with 75,000 to 200,000 killed and
half of the city destroyed, were almost as devastating as the atomic bombs of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.[5] After the war, Tokyo was completely rebuilt.
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