Hemeji+Castle

By: Conrad, Austin, Blair, and Drew

Hemeji Castle is nicknamed the White Heron, because of its white walls and the eaves that look like wings. The castle complex in is located in southern Japan. Its construction dates back to 1333 when a fort was constructed on Himeyama hill by Akamatsu Norimura in ancient Harima Province. His son later demolished the fort and built a castle in its place. The castle was later remodeled and turned into the current Hemeji castle. In the Meiji period (1868-1912), many castles were slated for destruction to make room for army barracks, but Hemeji castle was spared due to the efforts of Nakamura Shigeto, an army colonel. The castle took about 25,000,000 man days to build.

During World War II 1945, Himeji was bombed heavily. All around the castle, many things were burned to the ground, except the castle. There was one firebomb dropped onto the top floor of the castle, luckily, the bomb was a dud and did not explode. Thus saving the castle from great damage. Regardless, the white plaster walls help protect the castle from fire damage.

In 1956, action was taken to preserve the castle. It took 250,000 days to repair, and 550 million yen in cost. Sadly, all this work was taken to preserve and repair the castle, but in 1995 it was damaged in the Great Hanshin Earthquake. The castle is one of the most iconic buildings in Japan and is recognized around the world for its part in the James Bond film //You Only Live Twice// and the Tom Cruise movie //The Last Samurai.//