Episode 260 – The City that Never Sleeps, Part 3

October 13, 2018

This week: the Great Kanto Earthquake, the firebombing campaign, and Tokyo during the Occupation.

Sources

Mansfield, Steven. Tokyo: A Biography.

Seidensticker, Edward. Tokyo from Edo to Showa 1867-1989

Dower, John. War Without Mercy

A part of Robert Guillain’s account. 12

Images

Asakusa district after the Great Kanto Earthquake. Parts of Sensoji are visible int he background.
The Hibiya police station, not far from the imperial palace, after the great Kanto Earthquake.
A translation of a schematic for Goto Shimpei’s rebuilding of Tokyo. His plan would inform the postwar vision for the city.
Meiji Shrine. The park surrounding it was the most impressive legacy of Goto Shimpei’s rebuild of Tokyo.
A send-off ceremony for college students headed to the front in Meiji Stadium. October 21, 1943.
Downtown Tokyo after the firebombing.
The toll of the March firebombing.
A crowd awaiting a prisoner release from Sugamo Prison.
The Takarazuka Theater was one of many theaters to re-open after the war with a new, more liberated set of acts.