Kokura: see Kitakyushu, Japan.

is an ancient castle town and the center of Kitakyūshū, Japan, guarding, via its suburb Moji, the Straits of Shimonoseki between Honshū and Kyūshū. Kokura is also the name of the penultimate station on the southbound Sanyo Shinkansen line, which is owned by JR Kyūshū and an important part of the company's rail network. Ferries connect Kokura with Matsuyama on Shikoku, and Busan in Korea.

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 "Fat Man" 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. Since the mission commander Major Charles Sweeney 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" bomb, which had been dropped three days earlier by the Enola Gay on Hiroshima.

Famous residents

• Mori Ōgai
• Matsumoto Seicho

Festivals

• The Gion Festival of Kokura is called the “Gion of Drums” and celebrates the life of local folk-hero Muhomatsu.

Originalities

• Japan's first shopping arcade was built in Kokura.
• Japan's first cycle races (keirin) began here.
• yakiudon — food based on yakisoba, invented in Kokura.

See also

• Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Kokura prefecture