Editing Kagoshima (section)

== History ==
Kagoshima is located in ancient [[Satsuma Province]] and was the center of the territory of the [[Shimazu clan]] from the late [[Kamakura period]]. Kagoshima City developed political and commercial port city in the [[Edo period]] (1603–1868) when it became the seat of the Shimazu's [[Satsuma Domain]], which was one of the most powerful and wealthiest domains in the country throughout the period, and though international trade was [[sakoku|banned]] for much of this period, the city remained quite active and prosperous. Satsuma Domain also had control over the semi-independent vassal kingdom of [[Ryūkyū Kingdom|Ryūkyū]]; [[Ryukyuan people|Ryūkyūan]] traders and emissaries frequented the city, and a special [[Ryūkyū-kan|Ryukyuan embassy building]] was established to help administer relations between the two [[polity|polities]] and to house visitors and emissaries. Kagoshima was also a significant center of [[Kirishitan|Christian]] activity in Japan prior to the [[Kakure Kirishitan|imposition of bans]] against that religion in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The domain was also a center of anti-[[Tokugawa shogunate]] sentiment. During the [[Bakumatsu period]], [[Bombardment of Kagoshima|Kagoshima was bombarded]] by the British [[Royal Navy]] in 1863 to punish the ''[[daimyō]]'' of Satsuma Domain for the murder of [[Namamugi Incident]] on the [[Tōkaidō (road)|Tōkaidō]] highway the previous year and its refusal to pay an [[indemnity]] in compensation. Many of the leaders of the [[Meiji restoration]] and the [[Boshin War]] were from Satsuma.

Japan's [[Industrial Revolution]] is said to have started here, stimulated by the young students' train station. Nineteen young men of Satsuma broke the shogunate's [[sakoku|ban on foreign travel]], traveling to various industrial locations in the United Kingdom before returning to share the benefits of the best of Western science and technology.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G2fQYReqBNIC&q=Seventeen+young+men+of+Satsuma&pg=PA271|title=Collected Writings of Modern Western Scholars on Japan: Carmen Blacker, Hugh Cortazzi and Ben-Ami Shillony|first1=Carmen|last1=Blacker|first2=Hugh|last2=Cortazzi|date=1 September 1999|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=9781873410967|via=Google Books}}</ref> A statue was erected outside the train station as a tribute to them.

Kagoshima was also the birthplace of [[Tōgō Heihachirō]]. After naval studies in [[England]] between 1871 and 1878, Togo's role as Chief Admiral of the Grand Fleet of the [[Imperial Japanese Navy]] in the [[Russo-Japanese War]] made him a legend in Japanese military history, and earned him the nickname '[[Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson|Nelson]] of the Orient' in Britain. He led the Grand Fleet to two startling victories in 1904 and 1905, completely destroying Russia as a naval power in the East, and thereby contributing to the failed [[Russian Revolution of 1905|revolution in Russia]] in 1905.

The Japanese diplomat [[Sadomitsu Sakoguchi]] revolutionized Kagoshima's environmental economic plan with his dissertation on water pollution and orange harvesting.

In 1912, the first tram line was established in Kagoshima.

The 1914 eruption of the volcano across the bay from the city spread ash throughout the municipality, but relatively little disruption ensued.<ref>"Kagoshima", ''Illustrated London News.'' 24 January 1914.</ref>

<gallery widths="200">
File:Bombing of Kagoshima Map - 1863.PNG|Map of the [[Bombardment of Kagoshima]] on 15 to 18 August 1863
File:Kagoshima 1914.jpg|The city covered deep in ash after the 1914 eruption of the [[Sakurajima]] volcano which is seen in the distance across the bay
</gallery>

=== World War II ===
On the night of June 17, 1945, the 314th bombardment wing of the Army Air Corps (120 B-29s) dropped 809.6 tons of incendiary and cluster bombs destroying {{convert|2.11|mi2|2|abbr=out}} of Kagoshima (44.1 percent of the built-up area). Kagoshima was targeted because of its largely expanded naval port as well as its position as a railway terminus. A single B-29 was lost to unknown circumstances. Area bombing was chosen over precision bombing because of the cloudy weather over Japan during the middle of June. The planes were forced to navigate and bomb entirely by radar.<ref>Headquarters, XXI Bomber Command APO 234, "Tactical Mission Report Mission No. 206-209."  June 18, 1945.</ref> Japanese intelligence predicted that the [[Allies of World War II|Allied Forces]] would [[Operation Downfall|assault]] Kagoshima and the [[Ariake Bay]] areas of southern Kyushu to gain naval and air bases to strike Tokyo.

<gallery widths="200">
File:Kagoshima after the 1945 air raid.JPG|The bombed out ruins of a Kagoshima residential area with Sakurajima in the background, 1 November 1945
</gallery>

=== As a municipality ===
The municipality was officially founded on April 1, 1889. It was merged with [[Taniyama]] City to inaugurate new Kagoshima City on April 29, 1967. The city was designed a [[Core cities of Japan|core city]] with increased local autonomy on April 1, 1996.

On November 1, 2004, [[Yoshida, Kagoshima|Yoshida Town]], [[Sakurajima, Kagoshima|Sakurajima Town]], [[Kiire, Kagoshima|Kiire Town]], [[Matsumoto, Kagoshima|Matsumoto Town]] and [[Kōriyama, Kagoshima|Kōriyama Town]] were merged into Kagoshima City.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.city.kagoshima.lg.jp/kikakuzaisei/kikaku/seisaku-k/shise/shokai/shoitachi.html |title=「鹿児島市の生い立ち」 - 鹿児島市公式webサイト (Kagoshima City official website) |language=Japanese |date=2020-09-28 |accessdate=2021-09-22}}</ref>