After Tokyo was burned to the ground, the battle over how to rebuild it began almost immediately. The man leading the charge–one of Japan’s foremost bureaucrats–would become so frustrated with the experience that it would crush him completely. In the process, the fight would reveal some deep divisions over the importance of the capital and the nature of the postwar state itself.
Sources
Schencking, J. Charles. The Great Kanto Earthquake and the Chimera of National Reconstruction in Japan
A great essay from the Kanto Quake Museum on the reconstruction process.
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