Located at the head of Tokyo Bay, Tokyo is part of the Kantō region on the central coast of Honshu, Japan's largest island. Tokyo serves as Japan's economic center and the seat of both the Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government administers Tokyo's central 23 special wards (which formerly made up Tokyo City), various commuter towns and suburbs in its western area, and two outlying island chains known as the Tokyo Islands. Despite most of the world recognising Tokyo as a city, since 1943 its governing structure has been more akin to a prefecture, with an accompanying Governor and Assembly taking precedence over the smaller municipal governments which make up the metropolis. Notable special wards in Tokyo include Chiyoda, the site of the National Diet Building and the Tokyo Imperial Palace, Shinjuku, the city's administrative center, and Shibuya, a commercial, cultural, and business hub in the city.
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...)
Image 23Koreans in Japan about to be stabbed by Japanese vigilantes with bamboo spears immediately after the earthquake (from History of Tokyo)
Image 24A social hierarchy chart based on old academic theories. Such hierarchical diagrams were removed from Japanese textbooks after various studies in the 1990s revealed that peasants, craftsmen, and merchants were in fact equal and merely social categories. Successive shoguns held the highest or near-highest court ranks, higher than most court nobles. (from History of Tokyo)
Image 27A leaflet dropped by the U.S. over Tokyo during the bombings, urging civilians to leave the city (from History of Tokyo)
Image 28This marker in Nihonbashi is the place from which distances along highways are reckoned. (from Transport in Greater Tokyo)
Image 29Folding screen view of Edo in the 17th century, showing Edo Castle on the upper right corner (from History of Tokyo)
Image 30The five-story pagoda of Kan'ei-ji, which was constructed during the reign of Tokugawa Hidetada and required the building of the Kimon (Devil's Gate) (from History of Tokyo)
Image 54Picture of the Upper Class, a c. 1794–1795 painting by Utamaro. The woman on the left is lower in class than the woman on the right, who wears more colorful clothes (from History of Tokyo)
... that Allen Ravenstine, who used a synthesizer to emulate the sound of an airplane's engine on "30 Seconds Over Tokyo", later became an airline pilot?