Introduction and summary
"Shuri Castle: Fire destroys 500-year-old world heritage site in Japan" reports that a fire has destroyed all the main structure of Shuri Castle, which is on Japan's southern island of Okinawa. Firefighters had struggled to extinguish the fire for more than 10 hours due to strong winds. Cause of them is still unclear. Fortunately, No injuries have been reported. The castle burned down three times during the Ryukyu Dynasty and was almost completely destroyed during World War two. The current structure is a reconstruction. The castle was a campus for Okinawa's largest public university until the 1970s. It has been a tourist attraction since. Moreover, The castle had been schedule as a stop on the 2020 Olympic torch relay route.
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Response: What is your opinion?
After I read this article I feel very sorry for the incident. Thinking of the Unesco world heritage had been destroyed was tragic. Japanese's sorrow is beyond imagination. The incident not only impact Japanese's emotion but also people in other nationalities all over the world. Many tourist, both local and foreigner, who used to visit the castle have expressed their condolence for the loss on their twitter.
Shuri Castle, which was the palace of Ryukyu kingdom, is a symbol of identity for Okinawa people. It is currently the largest building in Okinawa. It had architectural influences from China and Japan. It is rich with history and culture. It has been there through everything from war to peace. After the war, it had been reconstructed based on history records, photographs, memory. Because the castle is a tourist attraction, I think this loss may cause a decreasing of tourists in Okinawa until the reconstruction has been finished. The governor said it will be rebuilt again. However, i don't know it will be the same as the old one or not. If it is not, it will cause negative effect in tourism. Nevertheless, I think there will be some people who still want to visit the castle to see how the Unesco world heritage of Japan is.
Fire is the most terrifying thing in the world that can destroy everything to ashes in a short time. It can damage the construction remaining its structure, change forest into charred wood and kill innumerable people. The fire incidents happened several times and damage many important places in the world this year, for instance, Amazon rainforest, Notre-Dame de Paris, and Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. It is always hard to find the actual cause of fire. In addition, it is much more difficult to prevent.
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I like the way Miw relates the specific fire that struck the Japanese temple to other firest that you have probably also heard of. I was more shocked by the fire that destroyed the roof of France's Notre Dame Cathedral early this year. That building has been a classic of mediaeval European architecture for centuries, and the destruction was a disaster for everyone, whether Christian or not, because of its cultural importance. I had never heard of the Japanese castle before, but when Miw related it to the French cathedrals similar fate, I could imagine how the Japanese people felt.
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