Talk:Kobe/Archive 1

Clarification
Dave,

can you clarify the sentence 'It is in the Kansai region of Japan, in the Higashinada ward in Hyogo prefecture to the south-west of Osaka....'. Higashinada ward (&#26481;&#28760;&#21306;) is a part of Kobe city so I'm a bit puzzled. cheers, --synthetik 01:58 Apr 25, 2003 (UTC)

________

Synthetik - my mistake: Higashinada is part of Kobe, with the benefit of fuzzy recollection where the town hall is located. I'll remove that reference.

You obviously know quite a lot about Japan: do you know the Japanese word for the change in seasons (I can't remember it)? Also, what is the name of the ceremony/event in Kobe where they light up Mt Rokko with letters in flames? Cheers - David Stewart 14:31 25 April 2003 (HKT)


 * Actually I don't know that much about Japan, but wikipedia made me dive into the subject. Of course it helps being a resident of Japan.
 * To get back to your questions. I don't know if you look for the word 'season' that would be kisetsu (&#23395;&#31680;) if not I will find out and tell you on your talk page.
 * The festival your talking about is actually in Kyoto not Kobe and is called Daimonji Gozan Okuribi held on Aug. 16 see -> http://www.momonga.org/kyoto/matsuri/okuribi.html for more info.
 * BTW, today I'll go to the Kansai area to visit friends and I will be taking a couple of pics that I plan to upload here (given they're good enough :). Any special request? What do you think should go on the Kobe page.
 * cheers, --synthetik 08:39 Apr 25, 2003 (UTC)


 * I think that the word you are looking for is 'Koyo' (紅葉).
 * dougandh

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Ah, thanks for the link to Daimonji.

Re: Kansai photos. I'd suggest the scene of Kobe in Harbor Land (near Mosaic Restaurant if its still there); the crab near Dotonburi Bridge in Osaka, which is a stereotypical but recognisable photo of contemporary Osaka; in Kyoto...I don't know. Too many to choose from.

Have fun in Kansai - I lived there Moriguchi on the Keihan line in 96-97, and haven't been back to Japan apart from a short trip in late 97 - natsukashii.

Cheers David Stewart

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Hi, I´d just like to suggest that the picture of the tower be put in the center, rather than in the right corner. It looks really awkrward... and I think if it was "Center", floating just next to the table of contents it would look quite nice... I´d pop it right right after

"The city is a part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan sprawl." So it had that effect... Kurogawa 05:17, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Disambig?
Kobe redirects here. Am I alone in thinking there should be a Disambiguation page or a note or something? There's Kobe Bryant and Kobe beef (for which he was named) to be considered. --Feitclub 03:05, Apr 11, 2005 (UTC)
 * I agree
 * ChristopherMannMcKay 13:28, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Busiest port in Asia?
I call bullshit on Kobe ever being the busiest port in Asia. According to, they handled 2,602,996 TEUs in 1993; it's not very easy to find data that old for other ports, but eg. Singapore was already handling almost 16,000,000 TEU in 1998. Until somebody digs up evidence to the contrary, I'm downgrading it to Japan's busiest port (which is a verifiable fact). Jpatokal 04:09, 10 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Proof! Hong Kong already handled 4,566 kTEU in 1993, handily whipping Kobe.  Even if empty containers are excluded they still managed over 3500k.  Same applies to tons of cargo: HK 118m tons  vs Kobe 39.8m tons.  Jpatokal 04:15, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

"Kobe" or "Kobe City"
WP:MOS-JA says city names should appear on its own without "City" or "-shi", but like other Japanese cities, Kobe uses "Kobe City" on signs and the official web site. This article uses both and either way, it should be uniform. It seems just "Kobe" is more appropriate, since it's not going to be confused with a prefecture name, and "City" shouldn't appear unless it specifically talks about the municipal government, IMO. Ytny 10:47, 21 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree; keep it Kobe, not Kobe City
 * ChristopherMannMcKay 13:27, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

New section
Throughout the article, cultural references are made that don't really belong in each section (for instance: kobe beef, movie and tourist references under Orientation). Why not place them together under a new section, Culture (as in the Kyoto article), Attractions (like in the Osaka article) or another appropriate name. Maybe even replace the Buildings section, since it only contains one building. Ninja neko 07:59, 28 July 2006 (UTC)


 * I agree, the page needs sorting up quite a lot. I tried to learn a bit about the city and its history and all I got was a rant on war crimes.

Japanese city article naming debate
Please join the discussion at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (Japan-related articles). --Polaron | Talk 08:27, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Too many zeros (not enough B29s)
Surely this is mistaken?

''During the course of World War II, Kobe was bombed with incendiary bombs by 331 B-29 bombers on March 17, 1945. The city was reduced to ashes and nearly 900 000 civilians were killed.''

The link asscociated with the word "bombed" states,

''Approximately 8,841 of the city's residents were killed in the resulting firestorms, which destroyed an area 3 square miles in size and included 21% of Kobe's urban area. At the time, the city covered an area of 14 square miles. More than 650,000 people had their homes destroyed, and the homes of another million people were damaged.''

Oh dear, how sad, don't start a war then.

POV issues
I tagged that paragraph because it uses the word "war crime" to describe the American bombing of the city, despite no objective determination (such as a conviction in a court of law) that that was the case. Moreover, the rest of the paragraph, while it may be true, sounds quite polemical in tone and should be rephrased to be more even-handed. Biruitorul 16:59, 10 September 2006 (UTC)


 * agreed. Needs rephrasing, a proper citation, and placement elsewhere.  As it is, this historical fact (together with peyorative generalisations over America) gets in the way of the real history of the city.

Determining civilian mass murder as a war crime should never hinge on official declaration as such such as in aa court of law. It is well-established that the bombings of Kobe, as well as numerous other and mostly smaller towns were bombed with the intentional murder of civilians.

Revision by anonymous editor from 72.53.7.117 on 06:58, 3 August 2006 is totally hoax and have no base. It must be safe to delete the edition. So I have deleted the part. "Many citizen's groups in Kobe are active in promoting awareness of this and other American war crimes against the Japanrese civilian population" ... I have never heard of such a thing. People in Kobe is not so radical in politic matter. The total of death directly caused by US's bombing until the end of the WWII was 8841 according to ja:神戸市. I think that we can rely on the number, if there is any strong oppose. The population of the city was more than 1 million in 1939, but 900 000 death is impossible. Other statements by this anonymous editor from 72.53.7.117 are not related to the city at all. --Isorhiza 10:33, 11 October 2006 (UTC)