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 (1903) the Allies. "Sumida" saw combat service in the Second Sino-Japanese War, beginning with the First Shanghai Incident in 1931. "Sumida" continued to operate on the Yangtze River in China during the early 1930s, but was already considered obsolete, and was struck from the navy list on March 1, 1935. She was scrapped on March 31, 1935 at Shanghai. Japanese gunboat Sumida (1903) "Sumida" was the first gunboat in the Imperial Japanese Navy inventory designed specifically for inland river service. The need for such a vessel to operate on the rivers of the Asian mainland to protect Japanese commercial interests at