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is an ancient castle town
Castle town

A castle town is a town or city built adjacent to or surrounding a castle.Castle towns are common in Medieval Europe, where towns would form around ancient Rome fortresses....
 and the center of Kitakyushu, Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
, guarding, via its suburb Moji
Moji-ku, Kitakyushu

in Kitakyushu is the former city of Moji which was one of five cities merged to create Kitakyushu city in 1963. It faces Shimonoseki across the Kanmon Straits between Honshu and Kyushu....
, the Straits of Shimonoseki
Kanmon Straits

The Kanmon Straits or the Straits of Shimonoseki is the stretch of water separating two of Japan's four main islands. On the Honshu side of the water is Shimonoseki and on the Kyushu side is Kitakyushu, whose former city and present ward, Moji-ku, Kitakyushu , gave the strait its "mon" ....
 between Honshu
Honshu

or Honshu is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait....
 and Kyushu
Kyushu

or Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its Japanese Archipelago. Its alternate ancient names include Kyukoku , Chinzei , and Tsukushi-no-shima ....
. Kokura is also the name of the penultimate station
Kokura Station

in Kokura Kita ward is the main railway station in Kitakyushu, Japan. It is part of the JR Kyushu network and the Sanyo Shinkansen stops here. It is the second largest station in Kyushu with 120,000 users daily....
 on the southbound Sanyo Shinkansen
Sanyo Shinkansen

The is a line of the Japan Shinkansen high-speed rail network, connecting Shin-Osaka Station in Osaka with Hakata Station in Fukuoka, Fukuoka, the two largest cities in western Japan....
 line, which is owned by JR Kyushu and an important part of the company's rail network. Ferries connect Kokura with Matsuyama on Shikoku
Shikoku

is the smallest and least populous of the four main islands of Japan, located south of Honshu and east of Kyushu island. Its ancient names include Iyo-no-futana-shima , Iyo-shima , and Futana-shima ....
, and Busan
Busan

Busan Metropolitan City, also known as Pusan is the largest seaport city in South Korea. Busan has a population of 3.65 million and is South Korea's second largest metropolis, after Seoul....
 in Korea
Korea

Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries, a civilization, and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia....
.

ra obtained municipality status in 1900.






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is an ancient castle town
Castle town

A castle town is a town or city built adjacent to or surrounding a castle.Castle towns are common in Medieval Europe, where towns would form around ancient Rome fortresses....
 and the center of Kitakyushu, Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
, guarding, via its suburb Moji
Moji-ku, Kitakyushu

in Kitakyushu is the former city of Moji which was one of five cities merged to create Kitakyushu city in 1963. It faces Shimonoseki across the Kanmon Straits between Honshu and Kyushu....
, the Straits of Shimonoseki
Kanmon Straits

The Kanmon Straits or the Straits of Shimonoseki is the stretch of water separating two of Japan's four main islands. On the Honshu side of the water is Shimonoseki and on the Kyushu side is Kitakyushu, whose former city and present ward, Moji-ku, Kitakyushu , gave the strait its "mon" ....
 between Honshu
Honshu

or Honshu is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait....
 and Kyushu
Kyushu

or Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its Japanese Archipelago. Its alternate ancient names include Kyukoku , Chinzei , and Tsukushi-no-shima ....
. Kokura is also the name of the penultimate station
Kokura Station

in Kokura Kita ward is the main railway station in Kitakyushu, Japan. It is part of the JR Kyushu network and the Sanyo Shinkansen stops here. It is the second largest station in Kyushu with 120,000 users daily....
 on the southbound Sanyo Shinkansen
Sanyo Shinkansen

The is a line of the Japan Shinkansen high-speed rail network, connecting Shin-Osaka Station in Osaka with Hakata Station in Fukuoka, Fukuoka, the two largest cities in western Japan....
 line, which is owned by JR Kyushu and an important part of the company's rail network. Ferries connect Kokura with Matsuyama on Shikoku
Shikoku

is the smallest and least populous of the four main islands of Japan, located south of Honshu and east of Kyushu island. Its ancient names include Iyo-no-futana-shima , Iyo-shima , and Futana-shima ....
, and Busan
Busan

Busan Metropolitan City, also known as Pusan is the largest seaport city in South Korea. Busan has a population of 3.65 million and is South Korea's second largest metropolis, after Seoul....
 in Korea
Korea

Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries, a civilization, and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia....
.

Isetan Department Store Kokura

History

Kokura obtained municipality status in 1900. When the city of Kitakyushu was created in 1963, it was divided into Kokura Kita ward in the north, and Kokura Minami ward in the south.

Kokura had been the primary target of the nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon

A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either nuclear fission or a combination of fission and nuclear fusion....
 "Fat Man
Fat Man

Fat Man is the codename for the atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, Nagasaki, Japan, by the United States on August 9, 1945, at 11:02 a.m....
" on August 9, 1945, but on the morning of the raid, the city was obscured by clouds and smoke from an earlier fire-bombing of the neighboring city of Yahata
Yahata

was a cities of Japan in Japan until it was absorbed into the newly created city of Kitakyushu in 1963. Its former area is as of 2007 part of two distinct wards of Japan: Yahata Higashi-ku, Kitakyushu and Yahata Nishi-ku, Kitakyushu....
. Since the mission commander Major Charles Sweeney
Charles Sweeney

Major General Charles W. Sweeney was an officer in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II and the Aviator who flew the "Fat Man" atomic bomb to Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 9 August 1945....
 had orders to only drop the bomb if the target was sighted, he was ordered to proceed to the secondary target of Nagasaki, where the weapon was dropped. Hence the Japanese talk of the "luck of Kokura". Kokura had been the secondary target of the "Little Boy
Little Boy

Little Boy was the codename of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945 by the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets in the 393d Bomb Squadron of the United States Army Air Forces....
" bomb, which had been dropped three days earlier by the Enola Gay
Enola Gay

The Enola Gay is the B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped the first Nuclear weapon, code-named "Little Boy", to be used in war, by the United States Army Air Forces in the attack on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945, just before the end of World War II....
 on Hiroshima
Hiroshima

The Japanese city of is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chugoku region of western Honshu, the largest of Japan's islands....
.

Famous residents

  • Mori Ogai
    Mori Ogai

    was a Japanese physician, translator, novelist and poet. is considered his major work....
  • Matsumoto Seicho


Festivals

  • The Gion Festival of Kokura is called the “Gion of Drum
    Drum

    The drum is a member of the percussion instrument group, technically classified as a membranophone.. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with parts of a player's body, or with some sort of implement such as a drumstick, to produce sound....
    s” and celebrates the life of local folk-hero Muhomatsu.


Originalities

  • Japan's first shopping arcade
    Shopping mall

    File:Nordstrom wing , Pentagon City Mall.jpgA shopping mall or shopping centre is a building or set of buildings which contain retail units, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit....
     was built in Kokura.
  • Japan's first cycle races (keirin
    Keirin

    is a track cycling event in which racing cyclists sprint for victory. Keirin originated in Japan in 1948; the first Olympic competitions in the sport occurred in 2000....
    ) began here.
  • yakiudon — food based on yakisoba
    Yakisoba

    , literally "fried noodles", is a dish often sold at festivals in Japan, but originates from China. The dish was derived by the Chinese from the traditional chow mein, but has been more heavily integrated into Japanese cuisine like ramen....
    , invented in Kokura.


See also

  • Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
    Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

    The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear warfares near the end of World War II against the Empire of Japan by the United States at the executive order of President of the United States Harry S....
  • Kokura prefecture
    Kokura Prefecture

    The short-lived Kokura Prefecture of Japan was founded separately from Fukuoka prefecture in December 1871 after the Abolition of the han system earlier that year....