Education Tower (Kyōikutō)

Built in 1936 from public donations, this tower in Osaka began as a memorial to the schoolchildren and teachers killed in a 1934 typhoon, one of the most powerful recorded at the time. The storm struck at the start of the school day, and more than a quarter of its 990 victims in Osaka were children and educators, with over 200 schools destroyed or damaged. Stories circulated of teachers who sheltered their students as buildings collapsed around them. Since the war, the Japan Teachers' Union has managed the memorial, which now honors educators and students lost to all subsequent disasters, including the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake.