Prior to the 17th century, Tokyo was predominantly a fishing village and was named Edo. In 1603, however, the city ascended to political prominence after being named the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate. By the mid-18th century, Edo emerged as one of the world's most-populous cities with a population of over onemillion people. Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the imperial capital in Kyoto was moved to Edo, and the city was renamed Tokyo (lit.'Eastern Capital'). In 1923, Tokyo was damaged substantially by the Great Kantō earthquake, and the city was later decimated by allied bombing raids during World War II in retaliation for Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. (Full article...)
The shrine lists the names, origins, birthdates, and places of death of 2,466,532 people. Among those are 1066 convicted war criminals, twelve of whom were charged with Class A crimes (the planning, preparation, initiation, or waging of the war); eleven were convicted on those charges with the twelfth found not guilty on all such charges though he was found guilty of Class B war crimes. The names of two more men charged with Class A war crimes are on the list but one died during trial and one before trial so they were never convicted. This has led to many controversies surrounding the shrine. Another memorial at the Honden (main hall) building commemorates anyone who died on behalf of Japan, and so includes Koreans and Taiwanese who served Japan at the time. In addition, the Chinreisha ("Spirit Pacifying Shrine") building is a shrine built to inter the souls of all the people who died during World War II, regardless of their nationality. It is located directly south of the Yasukuni Honden. (Full article...)
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General images
The following are images from various Tokyo-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1A view of Edo, from a 17th-century screen painting (from History of Tokyo)
Image 2The governing structures of Tokyo City and Tokyo Prefecture versus Tokyo Metropolis (from History of Tokyo)
Image 11The Tokyo Tower was built in 1958 and was constructed of steel, a third of which was scrap metal taken from US tanks damaged in the Korean War. (from History of Tokyo)
Image 12Tokyo from the air after the firebombing of Tokyo, 1945 (from History of Tokyo)
... that pianist Fujita Haruko, one of the first 19 female students enrolled at the University of Tokyo, was taught by Leo Sirota, who was once called the "god of piano"?