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A large building with a flag on top of it. Castle japan building.

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A large building with a flag on top of it. Castle japan building.

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Summary

Japanese castles were placed in strategic locations, along trade routes, roads, and rivers. Though castles continued to be built with defense needs in mind, for centuries, fortresses were also built as centers of governance. By the Sengoku period, they had come to serve as the homes of daimyōs (feudal lords), to impress and to intimidate rivals not only with their defenses but also with their sizes, architecture, and elegant interiors.

Before the feudal system could be completely overturned, castles played a role in the initial resistance to the Meiji Restoration. Eventually, all castles, along with the feudal domains themselves, were turned over to the Meiji government in 1871. During the Meiji Restoration, these castles were viewed as symbols of the previous ruling elite, and nearly 2,000 castles were dismantled or destroyed. Others were simply abandoned and eventually fell into disrepair.

Some castles, especially the larger ones, were used by the Imperial Japanese Army. Hiroshima Castle served as Imperial General Headquarters. Many castles were intentionally bombed during World War II. The main towers of the castles at Nagoya, Osaka, Okayama, Fukuyama, Wakayama, Ōgaki, among others, were all destroyed during air raids. Hiroshima Castle is notable for having been destroyed in the atomic bomb blast on August 6, 1945. It was also on the grounds of Hiroshima Castle that news of the atomic bombing was first transmitted to Tokyo.

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Date

2016
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Location

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Source

pixabay.com
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This image is from Pixabay and was published prior to July 2017 under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication license https://web.archive.org/web/20161229043156/https://pixabay.com/en/service/terms/ . In July 2017, Pixabay switched the old sitewide license for all uploads from Creative Commons CC0 to a custom license arrangement https://web.archive.org/web/20170727004812/https://pixabay.com/en/service/terms/ that prohibits mass downloads and does not fully meet the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication license terms.

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