YOKOHAMA HISTORY

Yokohama History - Yokohama Japan History - covers Edo period through Yokohama History of WWII and modern Yokohama history.

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Yokohama was a small fishing village up to the end of the feudal Edo period, a time when Japan held a policy of national seclusion, having little contact with Western foreigners. A major turning point in Japanese history happened in 1853 and again in 1854, when Commodore Matthew Perry arrived just south of Yokohama with a fleet of American warships, demanding that Japan open several ports for commerce, getting the ruling Tokugawa shogunate to agree in 1853. It was initially agreed that one of the ports to be opened to foreign ships would be the bustling town of Kanagawa-juku (in what is now Kanagawa Ward) on the Tokaido, a strategic highway which linked Edo to Kyoto and Osaka. However, the Tokugawa shogunate decided that the location of Kanagawa-juku was too close to the Tokaido for comfort, and port facilities were built across the inlet in the sleepy fishing village of Yokohama instead. The Port of Yokohama was opened on 2nd June, 1859.

Landing of Commodore Perry, officers & men of the squadron, to meet the Imperial commissioners at Yoku-Hama (Yokohama?) July 14th 1853. Lithograph by Sarony & Co., 1855, after Wilhelm Heine.The Port of Yokohama quickly became the base of foreign trade in Japan. Japan's first English language newspaper, the Japan Herald, was first published in Yokohama in 1861. Foreigners occupied a district of the city called 'Kannai' ("inside the barrier"), which was surrounded by a moat, and were protected by extraterritoriality both within and outside the moat. Many individuals crossed the moat, causing a number of problems. The Namamugi Incident, one of the events that preceded the downfall of the shogunate, took place in what is now Tsurumi Ward in 1862. Ernest Satow wrote about the incident in his A Diplomat in Japan.

After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the port was developed for trading silk, with the main trading partner being Great Britain. The city was officially incorporated on April 1, 1889. By the time the extraterritoriality of foreigner areas was abolished in 1899, Yokohama was the most international city in Japan, with foreigner areas stretching from Kannai to the Yamate Bluff area and the large Yokohama Chinatown.

The early 20th century was marked by rapid growth of industry. Entrepreneurs built factories along reclaimed land to the north of the city towards Kawasaki, which eventually grew to be the Keihin Industrial Area. The growth of Japanese industry brought affluence to Yokohama, and many wealthy trading families constructed sprawling residences there, while the rapid influx of population from Japan and Korea also led to the formation of Kojiki-Yato, the largest slum in Japan at the time.

Much of Yokohama was destroyed on 1st Sept 1923 by the Great Kantō earthquake, killing an estimated 23,000 people within the city boundaries. In the aftermath of the quake, mass murder of Koreans by vigilante mobs occurred in the Kojiki-yato slum, fuelled by rumours of rebellion and sabotage. Martial law was in place until 19th November. Rubble from the quake was used to reclaim land for parks, the most famous of which is the Yamashita Park on the waterfront which opened in 1930.

Yokohama was rebuilt, only to be destroyed again by 30-odd US air raids during World War II. An estimated 7000-8000 people were killed in a single morning on 29th May 1945 in what is now known as the Great Yokohama Air Raid, when B29's dropped 43,8576 firebombs over the city in the space of just 1 hour and 9 minutes, reducing 34% of the city to rubble.

During the American occupation, Yokohama was a major transhipment base for American supplies and personnel, especially during the Korean War. After the occupation, most local U.S. naval activity moved from Yokohama to an American base in neighbouring Yokosuka.

The city was designated by government ordinance on September 1, 1956.

The city's tram and trolleybus system was abolished in 1972, the same year as the opening of the first line of Yokohama Municipal Subway.

Construction of Minato Mirai 21 ("Port Future 21"), a major urban development project on reclaimed land, started in 1983. Minato Mirai 21 hosted the Yokohama Exotic Showcase in 1989, which saw the first public operation of Maglev trains in Japan and the opening of CosmoClock 21, at the time the largest ferris wheel in the world. The Yokohama Landmark Tower, currently the tallest building in Japan, opened nearby in 1993.

Article based on Wikipedia article and used under the GNU Free Documentation License)