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Fire burns down structures at historic Japanese castle

Tourists visit Shuri Castle on June 1, 2018, in Naha, Japan. (Carl Court/Getty Images)

TOKYO (AP) — A fire early Thursday burned down structures at Shuri
Castle on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, nearly destroying the
UNESCO World Heritage site.

Firefighters were still battling the
blaze a few hours after the fire started early Thursday and nearby
residents were evacuated to safer areas, Okinawa police spokesman Ryo
Kochi said.

The fire in Naha, the prefectural capital of Okinawa,
started from the castle’s main structure. The main Seiden temple and a
Hokuden structure, or north temple, have burned down. A third main
structure Nanden, or south temple, was nearly destroyed, Kochi said.

Nobody has been injured. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

Footage
on NHK television showed parts of the castle, engulfed in orange flames
and turning into charred skeleton, collapsing to the ground.

“I
feel as if we have lost our symbol,” said Naha mayor Mikiko Shiroma, who
led an emergency response team. “I’m shocked.” Shiroma vowed to do
everything she could to save what is remained of the castle.

Kurayoshi
Takara, a historian at Univerisity of the Ryukyus who helped
reconstruct the Shuri Castle, said he was speechless when he saw the
scene. He told NHK that the castle reconstruction was a symbolic event
for the Okinawans to restore their history and Ryukyu heritage lost
during the war.

“I still can’t accept this as a reality,” Takara
said. “It has taken more than 30 years and it was a monument of wisdom
and effort of many people. Shuri Castle is not just about buildings but
it reconstructed all the details, even including equipment inside.”

The
ancient castle is a symbol of Okinawa’s cultural heritage from the time
of Ryukyu Kingdom that spanned about 450 years from 1429 until 1879
when the island was annexed by Japan.

The castle is also a symbol
of Okinawa’s struggle and effort to recover from World War II. Shuri
Castle burned down in 1945 during the Battle of Okinawa near the war’s
end, in which about 200,000 lives were lost on the island, many of them
civilians.

The castle was largely restored in 1992 as a national park and was designated as the UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000.

Okinawa was under the U.S. occupation until 1972, two decades after the rest of Japan regained full independence.

Tourists visit Shuri Castle on June 1, 2018, in Naha, Japan. (Carl Court/Getty Images)