Hiroshima

The capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, founded in 1589 as a castle town on the Ōta River delta and, after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, turned quickly into a major urban centre and industrial hub. It gained city status in 1889 and was a centre of military activity through the imperial era, the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, and both world wars. On 6 August 1945 it became the first military target of a nuclear weapon in history. About 1,199,391 people live here now, in the second largest urban area in the Chugoku region.