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Tokyo prefecture
TokyoCity

Tokyo (東京), officially Tokyo Metropolis (東京都), is the capital city of Japan, and is one of the country's 47 prefectures. It is located on the eastern side of the main island Honshu. The 23 special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, cover the area that was once the city of Tokyo in the eastern part of the prefecture, totaling over 8 million people. The population of the prefecture exceeds 12 million. The prefecture is the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, the world's most populous metropolitan area.

Tokyo is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family.

Tokyo in Days of Infamy[]

As the capital of the Empire of Japan, most of the key decisions regarding Japan's participation in World War II were made in Tokyo. For example, Minoru Genda was able to convince Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto that full on invasion of Hawaii would be more tactically beneficial to Japan than simply bombing the U.S. base at Pearl Harbor.[1]

However, as the occupation continued on from December 1941 through 1943, Tokyo's considerable distance from Hawaii became a sore point for Hawaii's occupiers, such as Genda, who believed the Japanese government had no understanding of the situation.[2]

Tokyo in The House of Daniel[]

Tokyo was the home of the professional baseball team, the Tokyo Titans. They sometimes went to the United States to barnstorm during their off-seasons. They were an excellent team. The House of Daniel beat them once in 1932, though House manager Harv Watrous conceded it could have gone the other way.[3]

Tokyo in Joe Steele[]

Tokyo was subject to the first U.S. firebombing of Japan in March 1945, by hundreds of B-29s. They dropped tons of incendiaries cremating more than ten square miles of the capital.[4] It was the scene of fierce fighting and further sustained bombing during Operation: Downfall, the U.S. invasion of Japan in 1945.

After the war, Japan was divided between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Tokyo became the capital of South Japan, the puppet state created under the direction of U.S. President Joe Steele and the center of the U.S. military under General Dwight Eisenhower.[5]

Tokyo was spared further damage during the Japanese War. For reasons unknown, the Soviet Union opted to drop its atomic bomb on Nagano rather than Tokyo in 1949.[6]

Tokyo in "News From the Front"[]

Colonel James Doolittle was assigned to bomb Tokyo early in 1942. However, the publishing of military operations in American media allowed the Japanese Navy to intercept the raid before it had a chance to take flight.

Tokyo in "Ready for the Fatherland"[]

US-occupied Tokyo was destroyed in 1953 by a Soviet sunbomb smuggled into Tokyo Harbor by a freighter from Soviet-occupied Hokkaido. Several hundred thousands were killed. In response, the United States dropped their own sunbomb on the Soviet port of Vladivostok. The skillful mediation of German leader Erich von Manstein and the timely death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin stopped the war before the destruction went any further.[7]

Tokyo in The War That Came Early[]

In the summer of 1940, Soviet Foreign Commissar Maxim Litvinov traveled to Tokyo to broker a cease-fire between his country and the Empire of Japan in the wake of the fall of Vladivostok.[8]

Tokyo in Worldwar[]

Tokyo was the capital city of the Japanese Empire. During World War II, the city was raided by US Colonel Jimmy Doolittle in retaliation for the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. When the Race landed at the start of June 1942, they bombed Tokyo among many other Earth cities, ending Japan's war against the Allies. Despite being subject to repeated bombings by the Race throughout 1942 and into 1943, Japan was able to establish an explosive-metal bomb program in the city. In 1943, the Race learned from an escaped prisoner named Teerts of Japan's program, and destroyed Tokyo with their own explosive-metal bomb as a warning to all human powers.[9]

References[]

  1. Days of Infamy, pgs. 1-5, HC.
  2. End of the Beginning, pg. 5, MMP.
  3. The House of Daniel, loc. 4872, ebook.
  4. Joe Steele, pg. 300, HC.
  5. Ibid. pgs. 352-353.
  6. Ibid. pg. 371.
  7. See, e.g., Counting Up, Counting Down, pg. 93.
  8. The Big Switch, pg. 296.
  9. Upsetting the Balance, pg. 97.
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