1.
Hiroshima Prefecture
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Hiroshima Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region on Honshu island. The capital is the city of Hiroshima and it has a population of around 2.8 million. The area around Hiroshima was formerly divided into Bingo Province and Aki Province and this location has been a center of trade and culture since the beginning of Japans recorded history. Hiroshima is a center of the Chūgoku region and was the seat of the Mōri clan until the Battle of Sekigahara. Hiroshima prefecture lies in the middle of Chūgoku, most of the prefecture consists of mountains leading towards Shimane Prefecture, and rivers produce rich plains near the coast. The province faces Shikoku across the Seto Inland Sea, Hiroshima Bay opens on the Inland Sea. The prefecture also includes small islands. The sheltered nature of the Inland Sea makes Hiroshimas climate very mild, fourteen cities are located in Hiroshima Prefecture, These are the towns in each district, Hiroshimas main industries include automobiles and shipbuilding. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5, OCLC58053128 Official Hiroshima Prefecture homepage Life in Hiroshima, Hiroshima map National Archives of Japan, Itsukushima kakei, illustrated scroll describing Itsukushima, text by Kaibara Ekiken
2.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
3.
Oak
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An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 600 extant species of oaks, the common name oak also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus, as well as in those of unrelated species such as Grevillea robusta and the Casuarinaceae. North America contains the largest number of oak species, with approximately 90 occurring in the United States, the second greatest center of oak diversity is China, which contains approximately 100 species. Oaks have spirally arranged leaves, with lobate margins in many species, also, the acorns contain tannic acid, as do the leaves, which helps to guard from fungi and insects. Many deciduous species are marcescent, not dropping dead leaves until spring, in spring, a single oak tree produces both male flowers and small female flowers. The fruit is a nut called an acorn, borne in a structure known as a cupule, each acorn contains one seed and takes 6–18 months to mature. The live oaks are distinguished for being evergreen, but are not actually a distinct group, the oak tree is a flowering plant. Oaks may be divided into two genera and a number of sections, The genus Quercus is divided into the following sections, Quercus, the white oaks of Europe, Asia and North America. Styles are short, acorns mature in 6 months and taste sweet or slightly bitter, the leaves mostly lack a bristle on their lobe tips, which are usually rounded. The type species is Quercus robur, Mesobalanus, Hungarian oak and its relatives of Europe and Asia. Styles long, acorns mature in about 6 months and taste bitter, the section Mesobalanus is closely related to section Quercus and sometimes included in it. Cerris, the Turkey oak and its relatives of Europe and Asia, styles long, acorn mature in 18 months and taste very bitter. The inside of the shell is hairless. Its leaves typically have sharp tips, with bristles at the lobe tip. Protobalanus, the live oak and its relatives, in southwest United States. Styles short, acorns mature in 18 months and taste very bitter, the inside of the acorn shell appears woolly. Leaves typically have sharp tips, with bristles at the lobe tip. Lobatae, the red oaks of North America, Central America, styles long, acorns mature in 18 months and taste very bitter
4.
Camellia
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Camellia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan, there are 100–300 described species, with some controversy over the exact number. There are also around 3,000 hybrids, the genus was named by Linnaeus after the Jesuit botanist Georg Joseph Kamel, who worked in the Philippines and described a species of camellia. Of economic importance in the Indian subcontinent and Asia, leaves of C. sinensis are processed to create the popular beverage, the ornamental C. japonica, C. sasanqua and their hybrids are the source of hundreds of garden cultivars. C. oleifera produces tea seed oil, used in cooking, Camellias are evergreen shrubs or small trees up to 20 m tall. Their leaves are arranged, simple, thick, serrated. Their flowers are large and conspicuous, one to 12 cm in diameter. The colors of the flowers vary from white through pink colors to red, truly yellow flowers are only in South China. Camellia flowers throughout the genus are characterized by a bouquet of conspicuous yellow stamens. The so-called fruit of plants is a dry capsule, sometimes subdivided in up to five compartments. The various species of plants are generally well-adapted to acidic soils rich in humus. Most species of camellias also require an amount of water, either from natural rainfall or from irrigation. However, some of the more unusual camellias – typically species from karst soils in Vietnam – can grow too much water. Camellia plants usually have a growth rate. Typically they will grow about 30 cm per year until mature – though this does vary depending on their variety, Camellia plants are used as food plants by the larvae of a number of Lepidoptera species, see List of Lepidoptera that feed on Camellia. Leaves of the Japanese camellia are susceptible to the fungal parasite Mycelia sterile, Camellia sinensis, the tea plant, is of major commercial importance because tea is made from its leaves. The species C. sinensis is the product of generations of selective breeding in order to bring out qualities considered desirable for tea. However, many other camellias can be used to produce a similar beverage, for example, in some parts of Japan, tea made from C. sasanqua leaves is popular
5.
Shipbuilding
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Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history, Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both commercial and military, are referred to as naval engineering. The construction of boats is an activity called boat building. The dismantling of ships is called ship breaking, the ancestors of Australian Aborigines and New Guineans also went across the Lombok Strait to Sahul by boat over 50,000 years ago. Evidence from Ancient Egypt shows that the early Egyptians knew how to assemble planks of wood into a ship hull as early as 3000 BC, the Archaeological Institute of America reports that some of the oldest ships yet unearthed are known as the Abydos boats. These are a group of 14 ships discovered in Abydos that were constructed of wooden planks which were sewn together, the ship dating to 3000 BC was about 25 m,75 feet long and is now thought to perhaps have belonged to an earlier pharaoh. According to professor OConnor, the 5, 000-year-old ship may have belonged to Pharaoh Aha. Early Egyptians also knew how to assemble planks of wood with treenails to fasten them together, early Egyptians also knew how to fasten the planks of this ship together with mortise and tenon joints. The oldest known tidal dock in the world was built around 2500 BC during the Harappan civilisation at Lothal near the present day Mangrol harbour on the Gujarat coast in India, other ports were probably at Balakot and Dwarka. However, it is probable that many small-scale ports, and not massive ports, were used for the Harappan maritime trade, ships from the harbour at these ancient port cities established trade with Mesopotamia. Shipbuilding and boatmaking may have been prosperous industries in ancient India, native labourers may have manufactured the flotilla of boats used by Alexander the Great to navigate across the Hydaspes and even the Indus, under Nearchos. The Indians also exported teak for shipbuilding to ancient Persia, other references to Indian timber used for shipbuilding is noted in the works of Ibn Jubayr. The ships of Ancient Egypts Eighteenth Dynasty were typically about 25 meters in length and they mounted a single square sail on a yard, with an additional spar along the bottom of the sail. These ships could also be oar propelled, the ocean and sea going ships of Ancient Egypt were constructed with cedar wood, most likely hailing from Lebanon. The ships of Phoenicia seem to have been of a similar design, the naval history of China stems back to the Spring and Autumn period of the ancient Chinese Zhou Dynasty. The Chinese built large rectangular barges known as ships, which were essentially floating fortresses complete with multiple decks with guarded ramparts. There is considerable knowledge regarding shipbuilding and seafaring in the ancient Mediterranean and this was dually met with the introduction of the Han Dynasty junk ship design in the same century
6.
Seto Inland Sea
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The Seto Inland Sea, also known as Setouchi or often shortened to Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū, three of the four main islands of Japan. The region that includes the Seto Inland Sea and the areas of Honshū, Shikoku. It serves as a waterway, connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan and it connects to Osaka Bay and provides a sea transport link to industrial centers in the Kansai region, including Osaka and Kobe. Before the construction of the Sanyō Main Line, it was the transportation link between Kansai and Kyūshū. The Setouchi region is known for its climate, with a stable year-round temperature. The sea is also famous for its periodic red tides caused by dense groupings of certain phytoplankton that result in the death of large numbers of fish, the International Hydrographic Organizations definition of the limits of the Seto Inland Sea is as follows, On the West. The Southeastern limit of the Japan Sea, a line running from Takura Saki in Honsyû to Oishi Hana in the island of Awazi, through this island to Sio Saki and on to Oiso Saki in Sikoku. A line joining Sada Misaki in Sikoku and Seki Saki in Kyûsyû, the Seto Inland Sea is 450 km long from east to west. The width from south to north varies from 15 to 55 km, in most places, the water is relatively shallow. The average depth is 37.3 m, the greatest depth is 105 m, the Naruto Strait connects the eastern part of the Seto Inland Sea to the Kii Channel, which in turn connects to the Pacific Ocean. The western part of the Seto Inland Sea connects to the Sea of Japan through the Kanmon Straits, each part of the Seto Inland Sea has a separate name in Japanese. There are also many straits located between the islands, as well as a number of smaller ones that pass between islands or connect the Seto Inland Sea to other seas or the Pacific. Almost 3,000 islands are located in the Seto Inland Sea, many of the smaller islands are uninhabited. Over 500 marine species are known to live in the Seto Inland Sea, examples are the ayu, an amphidromous fish, the horseshoe crab, the finless porpoise, and the great white shark, which has occasionally attacked people in the Seto Inland Sea. In the past whales entered the sea to feed or breed, however due to whaling and pollution, they have disappeared from the Seto Inland Sea. It is believed that in the last ice age the sea level was lower than today, after the ice age, sea water poured into a basin between the Chūgoku mountains and Shikoku mountains and formed the Seto Inland Sea as we know it today. From ancient times, the Seto Inland Sea served as a transport line between its coastal areas, including what is today the Kansai region and Kyūshū. It was also a transport line between Japan and other countries, including Korea and China
7.
Shipyard
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A shipyard is a place where ships are repaired and built. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships, dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial construction. The terms are used interchangeably, in part because the evolution of dockyards and shipyards has often caused them to change or merge roles. The shipbuilding industry tends to be fragmented in Europe than in Asia. In European countries there are a number of small companies. The publicly owned shipyards in the US are Naval facilities providing basing, support, Shipyards are constructed nearby the sea or tidal rivers to allow easy access for their ships. Sir Alfred Yarrow established his yard by the Thames in Londons Docklands in the late 19th century before moving it northwards to the banks of the Clyde at Scotstoun. Other famous UK shipyards include the Harland and Wolff yard in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where Titanic was built, and the naval dockyard at Chatham, England on the Medway in north Kent. The site of a large shipyard will contain many specialised cranes, dry docks, slipways, dust-free warehouses, painting facilities, after a ships useful life is over, it makes its final voyage to a shipbreaking yard, often on a beach in South Asia. Historically shipbreaking was carried on in drydock in developed countries, but high wages, the worlds earliest known dockyards were built in the Harappan port city of Lothal circa 2600 BC in Gujarat, India. Lothal engineers accorded high priority to the creation of a dockyard, the dock was built on the eastern flank of the town, and is regarded by archaeologists as an engineering feat of the highest order. It was located away from the current of the river to avoid silting. The name of the ancient Greek city of Naupactus means shipyard, Naupactus reputation in this field extends to the time of legend, where it is depicted as the place where the Heraclidae built a fleet to invade the Peloponnesus. During its time of operation it was changed, rebuilt and modified. It is currently a maritime museum, ships were the first items to be manufactured in a factory, several hundred years before the Industrial Revolution, in the Venice Arsenal, Venice, Italy. The Arsenal apparently mass-produced nearly one every day using pre-manufactured parts. Chantiers de lAtlantique – established in 1861 Nantes-Indret, France – Establish in 1771 it built ships for the American Revolution including the Deane, jean Street Shipyard 1843–present – The oldest continually operated shipyard in the U. S. Located on the Hillsborough River in Tampa, Florida, Gloucester Marine Railways 1859–present – Oldest working shipyard in New England
8.
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
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The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, or JMSDF, is the naval branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. It is the de facto navy of Japan and was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy after World War II, the JMSDF has a fleet of 154 ships and 346 aircraft. Its main tasks are to control of the nations sea lanes. It also participates in UN-led peacekeeping operations and Maritime Interdiction Operations, Japan has a long history of naval interaction with the Asian continent, involving the transportation of troops, starting at least with the beginning of the Kofun period in the 3rd century. Following the attempts at Mongol invasions of Japan by Kublai Khan in 1274 and 1281, Japan undertook major naval building efforts in the 16th century, during the Warring States period, when feudal rulers vying for supremacy built vast coastal navies of several hundred ships. Around that time, Japan may have developed one of the worlds first ironclad warships, in 1588, Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued a ban on Wakō piracy, the pirates then became vassals of Hideyoshi and comprised the naval force used in the Japanese invasion of Korea. Japan built her first large ocean-going warships in the beginning of the 17th century, in 1613, the Daimyo of Sendai, in agreement with the Tokugawa Bakufu, built the Date Maru. This 500 ton galleon-type ship transported the Japanese embassy of Hasekura Tsunenaga to the Americas, from 1604 onwards, about 350 Red seal ships, usually armed and incorporating European technology, were also commissioned by the Bakufu, mainly for Southeast Asian trade. From 1868, the restored Meiji Emperor continued with reforms to industrialize and militarize Japan to prevent the United States, on 17 January 1868, the Ministry of Military Affairs was established, with Iwakura Tomomi, Shimazu Tadayoshi and Prince Komatsu-no-miya Akihito as the First Secretaries. On 26 March 1868, the first Naval Review was held in Japan, with 6 ships from the private domainal navies of Saga, Chōshū, Satsuma, Kurume, Kumamoto and Hiroshima participating. The total tonnage of ships was 2252 tons, far smaller than the tonnage of the single foreign vessel that also participated. This formed the core of the new Imperial Japanese Navy, an 1872 edict officially separated the Japanese Navy from the Japanese Army. Politicians like Enomoto Takeaki set out to use the Navy to expand to the south of Japan in similar fashion to the Armys northern and western expansion. The Navy sought to upgrade its fleet to a blue water navy, enomotos policies helped the Navy expand and incorporate many different islands into the Japanese Empire, including Iwo Jima in 1889. The navy continued to expand and incorporate political influence throughout the twentieth century. Following Japans defeat in World War II, the Imperial Japanese Navy was dissolved by the Potsdam Declaration acceptance, ships were disarmed, and some of them, such as the battleship Nagato, were taken by the Allied Powers as reparation. The minesweeping fleet was transferred to the newly formed Maritime Safety Agency. The prevalent view in Japan is that this allows for military forces to be kept for the purposes of self-defense
9.
Yamato Museum
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The Yamato Museum is a nickname of the Kure Maritime Museum in Kure, Hiroshima, Japan. The museum opened on April 23,2005 and it is nicknamed the Yamato Museum due to the display in the lobby of the large model ship, Yamato, a 1/10 scale model of the battleship, Yamato. The Yamato was the flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet in World War II and it was sunk south of the Japanese island of Kyushu in 1945. The museum is located where the battleship was completed, outside the museum there is a brick park, a lawn plaza, and Yamato Wharf. The Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force Kure Museum, which includes the retired JMSDF Yūshio-class submarine Akishio, is located next to the Yamato Museum, the sunken Yamato was surveyed previously, but in May 2015, digital technology was used for the first time. The footage shows many identifiable parts of the wreckage, such as the chrysanthemum crest on the bow, the 5 m -diameter propeller, the museum plans to show the nine-minute video repeatedly in its theater. In 2015, the announced that it had entered into a sister museum partnersip with the USS Missouri Memorial Association in Pearl Harbor. The agreement commemorates the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II
10.
Japanese battleship Yamato
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Yamato was the lead ship of the Yamato class of Imperial Japanese Navy World War II battleships. Named after the ancient Japanese Yamato Province, Yamato was designed to counter the numerically superior battleship fleet of the United States and she was laid down in 1937 and formally commissioned a week after the Pearl Harbor attack in late 1941. Although present at the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, the only time Yamato fired her main guns at enemy surface targets was in October 1944, when she was sent to engage American forces invading the Philippines during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. In a desperate attempt to slow the Allied advance, Yamato was dispatched on a mission to Okinawa in April 1945, with orders to beach herself. The task force was spotted south of Kyushu by US submarines and aircraft, during the 1930s the Japanese government adopted an ultranationalist militancy with a view to greatly expand the Japanese Empire. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations in 1934, renouncing its treaty obligations, after withdrawing from the Washington Naval Treaty, which limited the size and power of capital ships, the Imperial Japanese Navy began their design of the new Yamato class of heavy battleships. The keel of Yamato, the ship of the class, was laid down at the Kure Naval Arsenal, Hiroshima, on 4 November 1937. The dock was deepened by one meter, and gantry cranes capable of lifting up to 350 tonnes were installed, extreme secrecy was maintained throughout construction, a canopy even being erected over part of the drydock to screen the ship from view. Yamato was launched on 8 August 1940, with Captain Miyazato Shutoku in command, a great effort was made in Japan to ensure that the ships were built in extreme secrecy to prevent American intelligence officials from learning of their existence and specifications. Each gun was 21.13 metres long, weighed 147.3 metric tons and her secondary battery comprised twelve 155-millimetre guns mounted in four triple turrets, and twelve 127-millimetre guns in six twin mounts. These turrets had been taken off the Mogami-class cruisers when those vessels were converted to an armament of 20. 3-centimetre guns. In addition, Yamato carried twenty-four 25-millimetre anti-aircraft guns, primarily mounted amidships, during October or November 1941 Yamato underwent sea trials, reaching her maximum possible speed of 27.4 knots. As war loomed, priority was given to accelerating military construction, the same day, under Captain Gihachi Takayanagi, she joined fellow battleships Nagato and Mutsu in the 1st Battleship Division. On 12 February 1942, Yamato became the flagship of Admiral Isoroku Yamamotos Combined Fleet, after participating in war games Yamato departed Hiroshima Bay on 27 May for duty with Yamamotos main battleship group. US codebreakers were aware of Yamamotos intentions and the Battle of Midway proved disastrous for Japans carrier force, on 5 June, Yamamoto ordered the remaining ships to return to Japan, so Yamato withdrew with the main battleship force to Hashirajima, before making her way back to Kure. Yamato left Kure for Truk on 17 August 1942, after 11 days at sea, she was sighted by the American submarine USS Flying Fish, which fired four torpedoes, all of which missed, Yamato arrived safely at Truk later that day. She remained there throughout the Guadalcanal Campaign because of a lack of 460 mm ammunition suitable for shore bombardment, uncharted seas around Guadalcanal, before the years end, Captain Chiaki Matsuda was assigned to command Yamato. On 11 February 1943, Yamato was replaced by her sister ship Musashi as flagship of the Combined Fleet, the battleship spent only a single day away from Truk between her arrival in August 1942 and her departure on 8 May 1943
11.
Pacific War
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The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in the Pacific and East Asia. It was fought over a vast area that included the Pacific Ocean and islands, the South West Pacific, South-East Asia, and in China. The Pacific War saw the Allied powers pitted against the Empire of Japan, the formal and official surrender of Japan took place aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. In Allied countries during the war, The Pacific War was not usually distinguished from World War II in general, or was known simply as the War against Japan. Japan used the name Greater East Asia War, as chosen by a decision on 10 December 1941. Japanese officials integrated what they called the Japan–China Incident into the Greater East Asia War, in Japan, the Fifteen Years War is also used, referring to the period from the Mukden Incident of 1931 through 1945. The Phayap Army sent troops to invade and occupy northeastern Burma, also involved were the Japanese puppet states of Manchukuo and Mengjiang, and the collaborationist Wang Jingwei regime. The official policy of the U. S. Government is that Thailand was not an ally of the Axis, Japan conscripted many soldiers from its colonies of Korea and Formosa. To a small extent, some Vichy French, Indian National Army, Germany and Italy both had limited involvement in the Pacific War. The German and the Italian navies operated submarines and raiding ships in the Indian, the Italians had access to concession territory naval bases in China, while the Germans did not. After Japans attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declarations of war, mexico, Free France and many other countries also took part, especially forces from other British colonies. Between 1942 and 1945, there were four main areas of conflict in the Pacific War, China, the Central Pacific, South East Asia, U. S. sources refer to two theaters within the Pacific War, the Pacific theater and the China Burma India Theater. However these were not operational commands, in the Pacific, the Allies divided operational control of their forces between two supreme commands, known as Pacific Ocean Areas and Southwest Pacific Area. In 1945, for a period just before the Japanese surrender. By 1937, Japan controlled Manchuria and was ready to move deeper into China, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on 7 July 1937 provoked full-scale war between China and Japan. In August 1937, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to fight about 300,000 Japanese troops in Shanghai, the Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanking in December 1937 and committed which was known as Nanking Massacre. In March 1938, Nationalist forces won their first victory at Taierzhuang, but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by Japanese in May. In June 1938, Japan deployed about 350,000 troops to invade Wuhan, the Japanese achieved major military victories, but world opinion—in particular in the United States—condemned Japan, especially after the Panay incident
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