| Kobe was briefly the capital of Japan in 1180 A.D. at the end of the Heian
period. Taira no Kiyomori moved his grandson Emperor Antoku to Fukuhara.
The exact location is uncertain, but is probably the neighborhood of the
same name in Hyogo-ku. The Emperor returned to Kyoto after about five months.
The city was founded on April 1,1889 and was designated on September
1, 1956 by government ordinance.
During the course of World War II, Kobe was bombed by 331 B-29 bombers
on March 17, 1945, killing over 8,000 residents and burning the city to
ashes.
Following continuous pressure from citizens, on March 18, 1975,the Kobe
City Council passed an ordinance banning vessels carrying nuclear weapons
from Kobe Port. This effectively prevented any U.S. warships from entering
the port, policy being not to disclose whether any warship is carrying
nuclear weapons. This nonproliferation policy has been termed the "Kobe
Formula".
On January 17, 1995 an earthquake measured at 7.2 on the Richter Scale
occurred at 05:46am JST near the city killing 6,433, making 300,000 homeless
and destroying large parts of the port facilities and other parts of the
city. It was one of the most costly natural disasters in modern history.
The earthquake notably destroyed the Hanshin Expressway, an elevated freeway
which dramatically toppled over: within Japan, the earthquake is known
as the Great Hanshin Earthquake (or the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake).
Kobe was Japan's busiest port and one of Asia's top ports until the Great
Hanshin Earthquake occurred. [1] Since then, the port of Nagoya became
Japan's busiest port. Kobe's world ranking has dropped down to the twenty-ninth
busiest port (as of 2002). Kobe has, however, recovered to become Japan's
third busiest port.
To commemorate Kobe's recovery from the 1995 quake, the city holds an
annual event called the Luminarie, where every December the city hall is
decorated with illuminated metal archways.
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