Commentary / World | THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK Sep 27, 2016
'No refuge could save the hireling and slave'
Is the U.S. national anthem racist or are the lyrics of the third stanza merely misunderstood?
Hiroaki Sato
A Japan Times columnist since 2000, Hiroaki Sato has won prizes for his translation of poetry (PEN American Center, Japan-US Friendship Commission). A paperback edition of his “Legends of the Samurai” has recently appeared. He is now working on a second collection of samurai tales with their origins.
For Hiroaki Sato's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Commentary / World | THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK Aug 28, 2016
The longest U.S. conflict and defining a war
Figuring out when wars start and end isn't always as obvious as it might seem.
Commentary / World | THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK Jul 29, 2016
Terror, terror on the wall, who's the biggest of all?
The word "terrorist" can and should be applied to a wider range of killers.
Commentary / World | THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK May 4, 2016
The complexities of 'they' versus 'xe/him/xir'
The long search to find a way to refer to people in English without relying on gender won't be ending anytime soon.
Commentary / Japan | THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK Mar 31, 2016
'I became temporarily blind, deaf and paralyzed'
Michi Kobi's acting career reflected the way the U.S.-Japanese relations changed over the years.
Books / Reviews Mar 26, 2016
'Mapping Courtship and Kinship in Classical Japan' explores peeping tomism and aristocratic polygamy
Peeping tomism plays a pivotal role in the elegant world of Murasaki Shikibu's "The Tale of Genji," Doris Bargen argues in her new book, "Mapping Courtship and Kinship in Classical Japanese." This may surprise readers as much as the argument in her 1997 monograph, ...
Commentary / Japan Feb 26, 2016
Undergoing the third degree in prewar Japan
A New Zealander who was taken into custody by prewar Japanese police provides a haunting account of jailhouse torture.
Commentary / Japan | THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK Jan 29, 2016
American legal principles and the Magna Carta
Henry Mittwer was a man of Japanese and American descent who stood up to the U.S. internment during World War II but in the end bore no rancor for that nation.