Two irreconcilable views of patriotism were given their classic expressions by two Englishmen: Lord Byron, the poet (1788-1824), and Dr. Johnson, the lexicographer and jack-of-all-literary-trades (1709-84). Byron said, “He who loves not his country can love nothing.” And Johnson: “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” Prime Minister Shinzo ...
Japan’s push to establish a nuclear fuel recycling program and use the plutonium created in the process was the center ...
Ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Midway are underway in San Diego aboard a retired U.S. Navy ...
100 YEARS AGO Thursday, June 21 1917 A whole family at Kamiyomura, Kugagori, Yamaguchi Prefecture, suddenly went frantic last Friday night, reports the “Jiji.” A 70-year-old man and four other people of the family cried, ejaculated, sobbed, etc. in a frantic manner the whole ...
An exhibition about swordsman Sakamoto Ryoma, one of Japan’s most beloved heros, has opened in Tokyo with some 70 items, including his favorite wakizashi (short sword). The sword is on display for the first time in 88 years. The exhibition, which will run through ...
Yoshie Oka, the first person to report to outside authorities the destruction wrought on Hiroshima by an atomic bomb in the closing days of World War II, died of malignant lymphoma in a Hiroshima hospital on May 19, it was learned Tuesday. She was ...
“Even the birds do not fly to Ezo,” went a popular 19th-century saying about Japan’s northernmost island. “Ezo” means “land of barbarians.” Settlement tamed it into “Hokkaido” — “north sea road.” But it was a rough passage. Pioneers from the mainland — for centuries ...
The government has announced the discovery of a document indicating that royal family members of the Ryukyu Kingdom, which ruled an area in modern-day southwestern Japan, landed on the Senkaku Islands in 1819, the oldest recorded visit to the Japanese-administered islands. The documented visit ...
In the midst of debates about whether the Self-Defense Forces should be dispatched to the far corners of the globe to assist a military alliance partner, an obscure episode involving the Imperial Japanese Navy a century ago in the Mediterranean Sea offers key lessons ...
100 YEARS AGO Thursday, May 31 1917 An extraordinary case of wanton mischief by Post Office employes was recently revealed by Mr. K. Ishikawa of Azabu, who made a formal complaint to the director of mails of the Department of Communications. Mr. Ishikawa contends ...
A special exhibition commemorating the 70th anniversary on Wednesday of the enforcement of the nation’s Constitution is being presented at the National Archives of Japan in Tokyo. It features the original copy of Japan’s supreme charter. The original document is signed by Emperor Hirohito, ...
Looking back at some of the political platforms that have been heavily endorsed by voters over the past century in a bid to predict where the country might be headed under the 'third generation' of postwar Japanese.
“Go, my son! Fight, make your way in the world.” But — the proviso is implicit — tell no one who or what you are. Ushimatsu Segawa, the protagonist of Toson Shimazaki’s 1906 novel “Hakai” (“The Broken Commandment”), harbors a deep, dark secret: who ...
100 YEARS AGO Friday, April 13 1917 It has been discovered that cherry trees at Yoshino-yama, the most celebrated cherry flower resort in Japan, have been attacked by white ants. This has given no small surprise to the caretakers of the resort and on ...
A Japanese-U.S. memorial service was held in Iwojima on Saturday to remember the victims of the brutal battle they waged on the Pacific island in the final stages of World War II. At the ceremony, hosted by the Iwojima associations of Japan and the ...
