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Yokosuka is the largest city located on the Miura Peninsula, with a population of just under 400,000 people. Around 300 years ago, the Shogun government established a Magistrate's Office in what is now southern Yokosuka (Uraga District), to serve as an inspection checkpoint for people and materials headed into Edo (the old name for Tokyo.) Surrounding the Uraga Magistrate's Office in those days, were only small farming and fishing villages. Later on, in the late-19th century, things really began to change, when the Meiji government selected the Yokosuka area to be the site for iron & steel manufacturing, a railroad terminus, and a large harbor and shipyard for the Japanese Imperial Navy. The Japanese Imperial Army also built several bases, facilities and artillery fortifications for the coastal defense of the approaches to Tokyo Bay. By 1907, when Yokosuka was officially designated a city, its population had grown to over 60,000, with many people working in the shipyard and at other businesses related to the navy. By the time of World War II, there were over 350,000 people living and working in Yokosuka, and due to the lack of flat land, homes were built on slopes, in small valleys, and the top of hills -- something which can still be seen today. Following the end of World War II, the U.S. Navy arrived in the naval harbor, near downtown Yokosuka, where it remains through the present -- In fact, Yokosuka is America's largest overseas U.S. Navy Base, and the only place outside of the U.S. which hosts a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. This has been just a brief glimpse of Yokosuka's long history, and in future articles we look forward to explaining more!

written by Goodfield