With 2009 so far looking bleak, here are some queries from around the world that take us into the past with the hope of finding positive solutions for the present.
T o start, two letters concerning war memorabilia. The first is from R.B. in Minnesota, who has a World War II Japanese noncommissioned officer's sword that his father brought back from either New Guinea or the Philippines after the war. Now he is thinking that he would like to return it to the family of the soldier who carried it into battle. He asks, "Is there a Web site I can go to that can track it back to the owner? It has a serial number on it that may help."
Also, the editor of Hourglass, the periodical of the 7th Infantry Division Association in the U.S., saw an article on JT Online about the war-related Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo and it brought to mind the following problem.