Soeda and the Making of Modern Japan

Soeda's story provides insights into the last thousand years of Japanese history. It was the location of a strategically important castle, Ganjakujo, from the twelfth century until its destruction by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1587. Ganjakujo controlled access to Mt Hiko which, until its dissolution in the mid-nineteenth century, was the most important Shugendo monastic community in Kyushu. Coal mines in Soeda in the first half of the twentieth century owned by the Kurauchi family drove the modernisation of the town and powered the industrialisation of the country. During the Pacific war, these mines employed Korean labourers and Allied POWs. Although the town contributed to national economic growth in the 1950s, as the country switched to oil as its main source of power, its coal mines closed in the 1960s. Then, for forty years between 1971-2010, Mayor Yamamoto Fumio sheltered the town from the worst impact of being 'left behind', yet the town continues to seek a new identity into the twenty-first century.