Search - history

 
 
JAPAN / History / IMPERIAL ANNALS
Oct 11, 2014

Selective history: Hirohito's chronicles

Between July 30 and Aug. 2, 1945, when most of Japan's cities, including Tokyo, lay in smoldering ruins from U.S. aerial bombing and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were days away from being incinerated by American nuclear weapons, Emperor Hirohito sent an envoy to several Shinto shrines to pray for the "crushing...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Feb 21, 2016

In Japan, don't just celebrate black history, be black history

There are a number of annual celebrations of Black History Month here in Japan. I've attended dozens of them over the years. Have even spoken at several, and in fact will be speaking at one later this month. And more often than not, I'll be asked the question, "Why?"
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 7, 2015

South Korea's new state textbook 'corrects' history

South Korea recently announced plans for a revisionist textbook that will whitewash that country's history and has the academic community outraged over political meddling. At least the move gives South Korean President Park Geun-hye something in common with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2014

History wars restarted to hook schoolchildren

South Asian well-wishers of Indian Prime Minister Nerendra Modi may not be amused to hear that books will be sent to the schoolchildren of Gujarat, describing an 'undivided India' that encompasses the nation-states of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / BLACK EYE
Feb 28, 2022

Here’s hoping our better angels can persist beyond Black History Month

Just because Black History Month technically ends on Feb. 28, it doesn't mean your education needs to stop.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 4, 2021

Education ministry seeks to iron out wrinkles over school history syllabus

“Modern global history” is to be made a compulsory subject in senior high schools in Japan from 2022.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jun 9, 2015

History becomes a weapon in Russia-West rift over Ukraine

History has become a weapon in Russia's battle with the West over Ukraine as President Vladimir Putin looks increasingly to the past to whip up patriotism and rally support.
Japan Times
JAPAN / TELLING LIVES
May 13, 2015

Nagoya DJ brings Japanese history to life

Chris Glenn's participation in relief efforts in the disaster-hit Tohoku region made the news in 2011, when as a member of a group of pilots he flew a helicopter to deliver food, water and medicines for evacuees.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 18, 2015

History problems cast a shadow over Abe's Japan

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is dogged by history problems largely because he courts controversy with his revisionist views and efforts to rehabilitate Japan's wartime past. It's not only moderates and leftists who worry about this: Liberal Democratic Party Vice-President Masahiko Komura has also urged...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 6, 2015

History is harsh unless you erase it

On his visit to the United States in April, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe addressed Congress and told them: "History is harsh. What was done cannot be undone."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 19, 2010

Reinterpretations of modern history

One of Japan's pre-eminent contemporary artists, Yasumasa Morimura is known for his gender-bending self- portraits reinterpreting canonical works of Western art history. His works combine aspects of painting, sculpture, set design, performance and photography, and often use humor to subvert revered icons....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 21, 2020

‘The Japanese: A History in Twenty Lives’: Personal stories present a fresh perspective on Japan

Christopher Harding scales Japan's history down to the level of the individual with portraits of the eminent as well as the overlooked.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 25, 2019

Big history helps understand today's issues

A sweeping study of historical data yields fascinating revelations about the past, present and future.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Feb 20, 2019

The onus is still on us to be black history

A few years back, I wrote a piece for Black History Month in which I challenged people of African descent living here in Japan to "be black history." I implored them not to necessarily dwell on the past but to: "Dwell on the now instead. Because everything you do now becomes history and herstory the...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 14, 2018

Ice caps live-blogging human history

At the dawn of the 20th century, when the first humans set foot on Antarctica's seemingly pristine ice cap, pollution had beaten them there.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 15, 2014

1866 and all that: the untold early history of rugby in Japan

The history of rugby in Japan is arguably longer than that of every major rugby-playing country in the world outside of the British Isles and Australia. Very sorry France, New Zealand and South Africa! Regarding early documented rugby history, Japan wins. Until the recent discovery of an 1864 article...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / OBITUARY
Nov 7, 2021

Joyce Lebra: Trailblazing scholar and witness to Japanese history

The world of academia lost a true pioneer when Joyce Lebra passed away last month. She received the Order of the Rising Sun award in a ceremony a month earlier.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 21, 2017

Media deployed to fight history wars in East Asia

At a recent conference funded by the Toshiba Foundation on the media's role in representing the shared wartime past in East Asia, scholars and journalists gathered at Cambridge University to assess the current state of play.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jan 3, 2016

Battles over history, the media and the message scar 2015

A rundown of the top 10 human rights issues of the past year as they affected non-Japanese residents.
EDITORIALS
Dec 29, 2015

LDP takes aim at modern history

Does the LDP plan to use the panel to push a revisionist view of Japan's modern history and lay the groundwork for a revision of the Constitution?
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Oct 13, 2015

South Korea announces plans for state-issued history textbooks

South Korea's conservative government has announced plans to adopt new government-backed history textbooks for middle and high schools — a move that resembles a similarly controversial push in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 7, 2015

Taking a critical look at the prison of history

Those who write about history do so at their peril. The difficulties are manifest: how to contribute anything meaningful, to be divergent but remain credible and to research the past without losing sight of the present.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 16, 2019

'Japan Story': History enlivened at every turn with flashes of wit

Christopher Harding's comprehensive 'Japan Story' is an ultra-progressive account of modern Japanese history, ushering the often-ignored maverick women, socialist thinkers and doubters of the state version of modernity to the front.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 25, 2017

Australia's Turnbull says changing statues and rewriting history is 'Stalinist'

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Friday that calls to replace or modify statues of English colonialists, including explorer Captain James Cook, were tantamount to a "Stalinist" rewrite of history.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 27, 2021

‘Oishii: The History of Sushi’: A fount of knowledge for all things sushi

Historian Eric C. Rath's comprehensive overview of one of Japan's most iconic foods is encyclopedic, yet sprinkled with personal asides and illuminating source materials.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Sep 27, 2014

Japan — A short Cultural History

If there's room in your life for just one general history of Japan, let this be the one. In the hands of a master, history becomes art. British scholar-diplomat Sir George Bailey Sansom (1883-1965) was such a master.
Actor Joaquin Phoenix (left), actress Vanessa Kirby and director Ridley Scott arrive for the U.K. premiere of the movie "Napoleon" in London on Nov. 16.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 2023

Ridley Scott’s ‘Napoleon’ and our need for historical heroes

The new movie Napoleon' reignites the debate on the role of great individuals in history

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic