日本

一、日本Japan, officially the State of Japan，is an island nation in East Asia.Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan,People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun".Japan is an archipelago [,ɑ:ki'peləɡəu]of 6,852 islands. The four largestislands are Honshū本州岛, Hokkaidō北海道岛, Kyūshū九州岛andShikoku四国岛, together accounting for 97% of Japan's land area. Japan has the world's tenth-largest population, with over 127 million people.The Greater Tokyo Area东京圈, which includes the de facto[di:'fæktəu] 实际上的capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is thelargest metropolitan area大城市区域in the world, with over 30 millionresidents.Archaeological[,ɑ:kiə'lɔdʒikəl] research indicates that people lived in Japan as early as the Upper Paleolithic[,pæliəu'liθik] period. The first writtenmention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD.Influence from other nations followed by long periods of isolation has characterized Japan's history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period ofincreasing militarism['militə,rizəm]军国主义，好战态度. The SecondSino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II, which brought to an end in 1945 by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima andNagasaki['nɑ:ɡɑ:'sɑ:ki:]长崎. Since adopting its revised constitution in 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor and an elected parliament called the Diet.A major economic power, Japan has the world's third-largest economy bynominal GDP名义国内生产总值and by purchasing power parity购买力平价. It is also the world's fourth largest exporter and fourth largest importer. Although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military force in self-defense and peacekeeping roles. After Singapore[,siŋɡə'pɔ:], Japan has the lowesthomicide['hɔmisaid]杀人(including attempted homicide) rate in the world.According to both UN and WHO estimates, Japan has the longest life expectancy预期寿命；平均寿命of any country in the world. According to the UN, it has the third lowest infant mortality rate婴儿死亡率sport：Traditionally, sumo相扑is considered Japan's national sport. Japanese martial arts武术such as judo['dʒu:dəu]柔道, karate [kə'rɑ:te] 空手道and kendo 剑道；剑术are also widely practiced and enjoyed by spectators in the country.Education：Primary schools, secondary schools and universities were introduced in 1872 as a result of the Meiji['mei'dʒi:] Restoration明治维新.The two top-ranking universities in Japan are the University of Tokyo and Kyoto[ki'əutəu] University日本京都大学二、The City of HiroshimaHiroshima, city on southwestern Honshû Island (本州岛), Japan, capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, at the head of Hiroshima Bay. The city was founded in 1594 on six islands in the Ôta River delta(织田河). Hiroshima grew rapidly as a castle town and commercial city, and after 1868 it was developed as a military center. During World War II, it contained the 2nd Army Headquarters, which commanded the defense of all of southern Japan. The city was also a communications center, a storage point, and an assembly装配区area for troops. Hiroshima thus became the primary target o the first U.S. nuclear attack mission.The center of the city contained a number of reinforced concrete 钢筋混凝buildings as well as lighter structures. Outside the center, the area was congested挤满by a dense collection of small wooden workshops set among Japanese houses; a few larger industrial plants lay near the outskirts of the city. The houses were of wooden construction with tile roofs. Many of the industrial buildings were also of wood frame construction. The city as a whole was highly susceptible[sə'septəbl]易受影响的to fire damage.The population of Hiroshima had reached a peak of over 380,000 earlier in the war. At the time of the attack the population was approximately 255,000. This figure is based on the registered population, used by the Japanese in computing ration quantities, and the estimates of additional workers附加劳工and troops who were brought into the citymay not be highly accurate.After the war in 1949 the Japanese dedicated Hiroshima as an international shrine神地of peace. The city was largely rebuilt, and commercial activities were resumed. Machinery, automobiles, food processing, and the brewing of sake （日本清酒）are the main industries. The surrounding area, although mountainous, has fertile valleys where silk, rice, and wheat are produced. The population in 1990 has reached 1,085,705三、The Bombing of HiroshimaDuring the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945 and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months before the atomic bombings, the United States intensely fire-bombed 燃烧弹67 Japanese cities. Together with the United Kingdom and the Republic of China, the United States called for a surrender of Japan in the Potsdam Declaration波茨坦宣言on July 26, 1945. The Japanese government ignored this ultimatum最后通牒. By executive order of President Harry S. Truman哈里·杜鲁门, the U.S. dropped the nuclear weapon "Little Boy" on the city of Hiroshima on Monday, August 6, 1945Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima, with roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day. The Hiroshima prefectural health department estimates that, of the people who died on the day of the explosion, 60% died from flash or flame burns, 30% from falling debris碎片，残骸and 10% from other causes. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness. And most of the dead were civilians.On August 15, Japan announced its surrender to the Allied Powers, signing the Instrument of Surrender on September 2, officially ending the Pacific War and therefore World War II, as Germany had already signed its Instrument of Surrender on May 7, ending the war in Europe. Thebombings led, in part, to post-war Japan's adopting Three Non-Nuclear Principles, forbidding the nation from nuclear armament核军备. The role of the bombings in Japan's surrender and the U.S.'s ethical justification for them, as well as their strategic importance, is still debated.四、Earthquake, Tsunami[tsu'nɑ:mi] and Nuclear CrisisT he 2011 Tōhoku earthquake or the Great East Japan Earthquake was a magnitude 9.0 (M w) undersea earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST日本标准时间(05:46 UTC世界协调时间) on Friday, 11 March 2011, with the epicenter 震中approximately 70 kilometres (43 mi) east of the Oshika Peninsula[pi'ninsjulə]半岛of Tōhoku and the hypocenter[,haipəu'sentə]震源at an underwater depth of approximately32 km. It was the most powerful known earthquake to have hit Japan, and one of the five most powerful earthquakes in the world overall since modern record-keeping began in 1900. The earthquake triggered extremely destructive tsunami waves of up to 40.5 metres in Miyako宫古岛, Iwate岩手县, Tōhoku. In some cases traveling up to 10 km inland. In addition to loss of life and destruction of infrastructure基础设施；公共建设, the tsunami caused a number of nuclear accidents, primarily the ongoing level 7 meltdowns at three reactors反应器in the Fukushima['fu:ku:'ʃi:mə] 福岛I Nuclear Power Plant 核电站complex, and the associated evacuation [i,vækju'eiʃən]疏散；撤离zones affecting hundreds of thousands of residents.Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said, "In the 65 years after the end of World War II, this is the toughest and the most difficult crisis for Japan." The Japanese National Police Agency国家警察厅has confirmed 15,782 deaths, 5,929 injured, and 4,086 people missing across eighteen prefectures, as well as over 125,000 buildings damaged or destroyed. The earthquake and tsunami caused extensive and severe structural damage in Japan, including heavy damage to roads and railways as well as fires in many areas, and a dam collapse. Around 4.4 million households in northeastern Japan were left without electricity and1.5 million without water. Many electrical generators 发电机were takendown, and at least three nuclear reactors suffered explosions due to hydrogen ['haidrədʒən]gas氢气that had built up within their outer containment buildings安全壳厂房after cooling system冷却系统failure. Residents within a 20 km radius of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant and a 10 km radius of the Fukushima II Nuclear Power Plant were evacuated. In addition, the U.S. recommended that its citizens evacuate up to 80 km of the plant.Early estimates placed insured losses from the earthquake alone atUS$14.5 to $34.6 billion. The Bank of Japan offered ¥15 trillion万亿(US$183 billion) to the banking system 银行系统on 14 March in an effort to normalize market conditions. The overall cost总成本could exceedUS$300 billion, making it the most expensive natural disaster on record.The earthquake moved Honshu['hɔnʃu:]本州2.4 m east and shifted the Earth on its axis by estimates of between 10 cm and 25 cm.。