Page 41 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guide - Tokyo

Moments in History ❮❮ 39

Tokyo Air Raids
8 TOP 10 FAMOUS TOKYOITES
US raids on Tokyo during World
War II exacted a heavy toll on civilian 1 Katsushika Hokusai
lives. Tokyo suffered 102 raids in all, A famous woodblock artist of the Edo
the worst on the night of March 9–10, period, Hokusai (1760–1849) published
1945, when over 300 B-29 bombers, 30,000 sketches and 500 books.
loaded with oil, jellied gasoline, and 2 Soseki Natsume
napalm, swooped over tightly packed Regarded by many as Japan’s greatest
residential areas to the east, killing writer, Natsume (1867–1916) set
between 80,000 and 100,000 civilians. several of his novels in Tokyo.
3 Ichiyo Higuchi
The face of the prodigious writer
Higuchi (1872–96), who died from
tuberculosis, graces the ¥5,000
Japanese note.
4 Kafu Nagai
A fine chronicler of the Tokyo
demimonde, Nagai (1879–1959) traced
the trans formation of the city.
5 Junichiro Tanizaki
Tanizaki (1886–1965) explored themes
of sexuality, Western modernity, and
materialism in his novels.
6 Yasujiro Ozu
Legendary film director Ozu (1903–63)
described the collapse of the Japanese
family in Tokyo Story.
7 Akira Kurosawa
Kurosawa (1910–98), Japan’s
best-known film auteur, inspired
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.
8 Yoko Ono
Ono (b. 1933) was a reputed artist,
musician, and experimental filmmaker
Pole vault, 1964 Tokyo Olympics
long before she met John Lennon.
1964 Tokyo Olympics
9 9 Hayao Miyazaki
Miyazaki (b. 1941) is the Oscar-winning
The first games to be held in
Asia and telecast live overseas, the director of Spirited Away and many
other classics of Japanese animation.
summer Olympics of 1964 saw the
city reborn from the ashes of World 10 Ryuichi Sakamoto
War II, with modern stadiums, an Sakamoto (b. 1952), a prolific
expressway, and the start of the composer, wrote the music for
Bernardo Bertolucci’s Oscar-winning
Shinkansen bullet train services. film, The Last Emperor.
Aum Shinrikyo
0
Subway Attack
On March 20, 1995, members of the
death cult movement Aum Shinrikyo,
under orders from their leader,
Shoko Asahara, placed plastic bags
containing liquid sarin gas on the
carriage floors on five subway lines.
This act of domestic terrorism, the
worst in modern Japanese history,
killed 12 passengers and hundreds Great Wave by Katsushika Hokusai
more were injured.

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