Japan and the Past

choi

Japan and the past | Undigested History; Whether as victim or as aggressor, the country finds it hard to face up to the past. Economist, Mar 7, 2015
www.economist.com/news/asia/2164 ... -up-past-undigested

Note:
(a) "Katsumoto Saotome’s neighbourhood in Tokyo’s lower town 下町 was in flames. Canals were no escape, for the jellied paraffin in the bombs turned water into fire.
(i) Katsumoto SAOTOME  早乙女 勝元
An author, he was born (1932) and raised in 東京都 足立区 Adachi-ku, part of 下町.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adachi,_Tokyo
(ii) Japanese Japanese dictionary
* sa-otome 早乙女 【さおとめ】 (n): "young female rice planter"
* shitamachi 下町 【したまち】 (n): "low-lying part of a city (usu. containing shops, factories, etc)"
^  The ja.wikipedia.org defines, in Tokyo, 下町 as the lowlands near the sea or rivers. Its antonym in Japanese is
     yama-no-te 山の手 【やまのて】 (n): "hilly section of a city (usu. residential)"
* yoko 横 【よこ】 (n): "horizontal (as opposed to vertical)"
* ami 網 【あみ】 (n): "(1) net; netting; (2) web"

(b) "Official attempts to document who died [in the single night of of March 9-10, 1945; Tokyo firebombing] began only in 2009 and remain incomplete, although a memorial in a corner of Yokoamicho park bears witness to the dead, next to a charnel house with the mixed ashes of thousands who died. (The park also commemorates those who died in Tokyo’s devastating earthquake and fire in 1923.)"
(i) Yokoamicho Park  横網町公園
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokoamicho_Park

is located at 東京都墨田区横網. The name of the neighborhood was originally 横綱 (the highest title in sumo) but sometime ago was errorneously written as 横網.
(ii) 横網町公園
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A8%AA%E7%B6%B2%E7%94%BA%E5%85%AC%E5%9C%92

Quote: "section 1 歴史[:] 当公園は元々陸軍被服廠があったところであったが1922年に赤羽（現在の東京都北区）に移転し、東京市（当時）が買収し公園として整備したものである。工事は1923年7月から始まったが、その最中の9月1日に関東大震災がおきた。直後、周辺の下町一帯から多くの人が、この造成中の公園を絶好の避難場所とみなして集まったが、16時ごろ、地震で発生した火災による熱風が人々を襲った。避難の際に持ち出した家財道具に火が移り、さらに巨大な火災旋風が発生、人はおろか荷物や馬車までも巻き上げ、炎の中に飲み込んでいった。結果、横網町公園に避難した人だけで3万8000人が犠牲になったという。震災後、その3万8000人の遺体はその場で火葬され、3メートルの高さになるほどの大量の遺骨はその場に急遽作られた仮設の慰霊堂に収容された。やがて東京の復興が進む中、建築家・伊東忠太の設計の元、当公園に関東大震災による遭難死者約58000人の遺骨を納める納骨堂（三重塔）や慰霊堂が建てられ、1930年に完成。数十個の大瓶に移された遺骨は堂内に安置された。また横網町公園自体も1930年9月1日に開園した。翌1931年には当公園内に関東大震災の惨劇とそこからの復興を後世に伝えるため、復興記念館が完成した。しかし、1945年、東京は第二次世界大戦により再び焦土と化し、多くの犠牲者が出た。特に3月10日の東京大空襲では多くの犠牲者が出た。当横網町公園をはじめ、多くの公園に犠牲者が仮埋葬されていた。その後第二次世界大戦で身元不明の遺骨などを当公園にある納骨堂を拡張し「震災記念堂」に合祀されることになった。そして1951年に「東京都慰霊堂」と改称され現在にいたっている。他には関東大震災の際に、朝鮮系の住民が震災に乗じて略奪や襲撃を起こしているという情報が流れたため、一部の朝鮮人（朝鮮人と間違えられた日本人も）が混乱下の避難民により殺害され、それを追悼する石碑や、東京空襲犠牲者を追悼し平和を祈念する碑などがあり、横網町公園は関東大震災と第二次世界大戦のメモリアルパークとしての要素が強い公園となっている。

translation: History: This park was originally a clothing factory for army, which in 1922 moved to 赤羽. What was then 東京市 [in 1943 東京市 and 東京府 merged to create the present-day 東京都] bought the lot, in preparation for a park. The work started in July 1923, in the height of which The Great Kantō earthquake struck on Sept 1. Immediately afterwards, many folks from the surrounding lowlands massed here, thinking the park-in-the-make was an excellent refuse. But around 4 pm, fires caused by the earthquakes brought about hot-air winds, and jumped to furniture and household goods placed in the park. Even more, a firestorm occurred, and people, luggage, horse carriages got sucked up and swallowed. The refugees of 38,000 ended up died there, who were cremated on the spot after the earthquake. The ashes, three meters high, were stored at a hastily built stopgap memorial hall.  Soon revival of Tokyo was in progress, and these ashes together with those of victims from the Great Earthquake, contained in scores of vases, were taken in by the 3-story 納骨堂 and Memorial Hall (designed by architect Chūta ITŌ; completed in 1930). Also the park itself was open to the public pm Sept 1, 1030. The next year, 復興記念館 was completed. However, in 1945 Tokyo became scorched earth once more, due to World War II. Lots of people died, especially in the Mar 10 Bombing of Tokyo. Starting with this park, the deceased were temporarily buried in various parks of Tokyo. Afterwards, the no-name dead were also cremated and stored here, which changed the name to 東京都慰霊堂 in 1951. In addition, during the Great Kantō Earthquake Koreans living in Japan were said to loot; this information caused refugees in chaos to kill some Koreans, as well as Japanese mistaken for Koreans. They are all memorialized here by various stone monuments.

choi

(c)
(i) 東京大空襲
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/東京大空襲
(空襲としては史上最大規模の大量虐殺とされる [translation: as far as air raids are concerned, this is the largest massacre in history]; 新型の集束焼夷弾E46 (M69) [translation: a new type of E46 cluster bomb called M69])

Just view photos, where photo 4 shows B-29 bombers lining up in an airbase in Saipan. (B-29 bombers in this air raid took off from airbases at Islands of Tinian and Saipan (which are next to each other), Northern Mariana.)
(ii) Bombing of Tokyo
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo
(often referred to as a series of firebombing raids; The Operation Meetinghouse air raid of March 9-10, 1945 was later estimated to be the single most destructive bombing raid in history; section 2  B-29 raids))

(d) The content of the incendiary bombs dropped over Tokyo that night was called “jellied paraffin” by The Economist; and “napalm” by en.wikipedia.org. But they mean the same.
(i) napalm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napalm
(a mixture of a gelling agent and petroleum or a similar fuel for use in an incendiary device; "Napalm" is a combination of the names of two of the constituents of the thickening/gelling agent: coprecipitated aluminium salts of naphthenic and palmitic acids)
(ii)
(A) paraffin
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraffin
(may refer to “kerosene, a fuel that is also known as paraffin” in UK)
(B) kerosene
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerosene
(Kerosene is usually called paraffin in the UK, Ireland, Southeast Asia and South Africa; "In 1846, Canadian geologist Abraham Gesner gave a public demonstration in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island of a new process he had discovered. He heated coal in a retort and distilled from it a clear, thin fluid which he showed made an excellent lamp fuel. He coined the name 'Kerosene' for his fuel, a contraction of keroselaion, meaning wax-oil [Greek: keros wax]”)