Arakawa River (Kantō) Arakawa River (Kantō) The is a long river that flows through Saitama Prefecture and Tokyo. It originates on Mount Kobushi in Saitama Prefecture, and empties into Tokyo Bay. It has a total catchment area of . The river is one of Tokyo's major sources of tap water, and together with the Tone River, accounts for around 80% of Tokyo's water supply. Attempts to control flooding of the Arakawa River have been made since the area that is now Tokyo became the de facto capital of Japan during the Edo period. Following a major flood in 1910 that damaged a large
Japanese gunboat Sumida (1939) damaged the same day in an air raid, which killed her captain and 11 crewmen. After repairs at Shanghai, she was again assigned to patrols of the lower Yangtze from 19 August 1942, and the middle Yangtze from 1 September 1943. On 22 June 1944, a flight of twenty USAAF B-24 Liberators attached to the Fourteenth Air Force bombed the docks at Hankou, damaging " Sumida" and killing eight crewmen. She was again damaged in another air raid on 25 November. After the surrender of Japan, "Sumida" was given to the Republic of China as a prize of war, and