Let's Visit Tokyo!

There was a ceremony celebrating the completion of the reconstruction of Tokyo, Japan, in March, 1930. Presiding over the most orderly crowd was Hirohito, the Emperor of Japan, a "descendant of the Imperial House which has ruled Japan without a break for 2,500 years" Tokyo Today, William R. Castle, Jr., National Geographic Magazine, February, 1932, p. 131.  Following the 15 minute ceremony, "The Major gave a luncheon to more than 100,000 people."  At that time, Mr. Castle was the Ambassador to Japan and was present at the festivities.

Mr. Castle explains why he described this important celebration, "because in its contrasts, it typifies, somehow, the new city.  There is everywhere the oriental character beneath the Western clothes" (p. 132).  An earthquake with the fires that broke out destroyed 44% of Tokyo in 1923.  70,000 were dead and missing as a result.  What a tremendous effort it took to rebuild!  "To-day Tokyo is a city of broad streets, of many splendid buildings, of spacious parks" (p. 136).

Tokyo is the capital city of Japan, situated on the east coast in the central part of the Japanese islands.  Yokohama is nearby, to the south, and is Tokyo's port city.

"For 1,500 years the Japanese have practiced the art of landscape gardening, and have brought it to a remarkable state of perfection and beauty" (photo caption, p. 145).  In 1930, the only professional athletes in Japan were the sumo wrestlers.  "All parts of Tokyo are safe.  You can walk anywhere, at any time of day or night, without danger of molestation" (p, 151).  This is most unusual and admirable for any city in any year!

"Everywhere, in the most unexpected of places are shrines" of the Shinto and Buddhist faiths.  There is a sense of communion with the dead, "far more real among the Japanese than among Christians" (p. 153).

Mr. Castle succeeds in showing the contrasts and influences of the old and the new in Tokyo.  He concludes, "In Tokyo the West has met the East, and out of this meeting is growing a new kind of civilization in which the ideals of the two hemispheres are fusing" (p. 163).

My late, dear father, Reuben, was stationed in Yokohama, Japan, on a U.S.Army base from 1955 to 1957, when he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel.  He brought back many fine Japanese articles for the family, dolls dressed in kimonos for me, jewelry for mom and me, and statues of different sizes showing traditional native clothes and occupations.  I drive a Toyota, built in nearby Georgetown, Kentucky, USA.  Years ago there was a lovely Japanese woman in my Homemaker's Club in Danville, Kentucky. I have an admiration for the Japanese culture and would love to travel there someday!