鹿児島 (Kagoshima)

鹿児島 (Kagoshima) is a city located on the west coast of the narrowest part of 鹿児島 (Kagoshima) Bay, opposite the Sakurajima volcano and within the caldera of a larger volcano that includes the city, the northern part of the bay and Sakurajima.¹ The metropolitan area has 1.132 million people,² of which 606 thousand live within the city's limits.³ Perhaps the tallest building is the 13 story Kagoshima Kyocera Hotel.⁴

Nearly half the city was destroyed by American bombing in World War II.⁵

External references

overview of the shore of Kagoshima, looking east across the bay toward the active Sakurajima volcano

Historical maps

Footnotes

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aira_Caldera, accessed 7/3/2014. The bay is located in southern Kyūshū Island, ⽇夲 (Nippon).
2. 2005 census from the Statistics Bureau of Japan, cited in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_areas_in_Japan_by_population, accessed 3/25/2014.
3. 2010 figure from the side bar of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagoshima, accessed 7/3/2014.
4. As of 7/3/2014 this is the only building listed for the city in emporis.com.
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagoshima, accessed 7/3/2014.