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Reading an [article from the Asahi
Shimbun](http://www.asahi.com/paper/column.html?iref=comtop_gnavi) using
Rikaikun, I'm trying to formulate a good translation for the first sentence:

> ある所で起きたことを、地名とともに象徴的に表す言葉がある。 → {Upon Waking?}, along with the place name,
> there is a symbolic meaning.

The writer goes on to talk about the events after the Great Kanto Earthquake
and a group of kids that took the initiative to find shelter, and some guy's
wife whom he thought was missing and it was hard to bear.

Most of the article is easy for me to understand, but I am having trouble with
that very first half. I usually see 起きた as "having woken up" or the like, does
it mean here "to have happened" ?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-10T19:12:38.070
23176
2015-03-10T23:09:52.077
2015-03-10T19:28:31.413
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question
translation
起きたことを ... proper english rendering?
起きた happened  
起きたこと what happened  
起きたことを表す言葉 a word that describes what happened

ある所で起きたことを、地名とともに象徴的に表す言葉がある。  
There is a word that, along with a place name, symbolically describes what
happened there.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-10T19:59:29.870
23178
2015-03-10T23:09:52.077
2015-03-10T23:09:52.077
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answer