Ashio, Tochigi

Ashio (足尾町, Ashio-machi) was a town located in Kamitsuga District, Tochigi, Japan.

Map of Ashio, Tochigi

As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 3,465 and a density of 18.65 persons per km². The total area was 185.79 km².

On March 20, 2006, Ashio, along with the city of Imaichi, the town of Fujihara, and the village of Kuriyama (both from Shioya District), was merged into the expanded city of Nikkō.

Ashio was the location of a copper mine that caused a major pollution problem in Japan at the beginning of the 20th century. Subsequent environmental problems related to the mine are still evident along the river, in Tochigi, Gunma and Ibaraki Prefectures. In 1907 the miners here rioted.[1] During World War II a POW camp was based here to supply slave labour to the copper mines.[2]

The following communities agreed to seek the permission of the governor of the prefecture to merge on March 1, 2006:

References
  1. [Nimura Kazuo. (1997) "The Ashio Riot of 1907: A Social History of Mining in Japan"] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 7, 2012. Retrieved October 4, 2019.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), American Historical Review, Vol. 104, No. 3, June 1999.
  2. Dickerson, Andrea C. (November 17, 2016). "We were determined to get home". The American Legion.
  • Nimura Kazuo. (1997) The Ashio Riot of 1907: A Social History of Mining in Japan(Ashio bōdō no shiteki bunseki translated by Terry Boardman and Andrew Gordon). Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-2018-0 (paper)


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