Worried that foreigners would clash with Japanese on the nearby Tokaido the Tokugawa Shogunate selected a relatively isolated small little known fishing village by the name of Yokohama as one of the first ports to be opened to foreign trade. The Port of Yokohama was opened on June 2, 1859 and soon overtook Nagasaki to become Japan’s main city for foreign trade.
The foreign population was settled in a small area surrounded by canals. This was soon called Kannai (関内, inside the barrier), a name that is still used for the same area today.
Yokohama’s main commodity for export became silk, while it became one of the few places in Japan from where Western influences spread all over the country.
By the turn of the century in 1900, Yokohama had become Japan’s most international city with people from all over the world living in an area that stretched way beyond Kannai, the original area reserved for non-Japanese. It was one of the most affluent cities in Japan, but also housed the country’s largest slum, Kojiki-Yato.
Yokohama was virtually completely destroyed by the Great Kanto Earthquake of September 1, 1923 (Meiji 12). Out of 434,170 inhabitants at least 30,771 lost their life, an incredible 1 of every 14 inhabitants.
The city recovered, but was once again burned to the ground in 1945 (Showa 20) when the city was repeatedly raided by US planes.
It was rebuilt again and is now Japan’s second-largest city in population (Tokyo is the largest).