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Japan Times
Features
Aug 14, 2005

Author's 'sense of mission' shines on through the flames

At age 13, in total despair after losing her parents and two sisters, Toshiko Takagi tried to kill herself. But now, 60 years later, she stresses she never consciously tried to commit suicide.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 14, 2005

In the face of Samurai spirit

BLOSSOMS IN THE WIND: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze, by M.G. Sheftall. NAL Caliber, 2005, 480 pp., $24.95 (cloth). For American sailors who served in the Pacific theater during the final two years of World War II, nothing was more terrifying than a kamikaze attack. Grainy black-and-white footage of...
Japan Times
Features
Aug 14, 2005

Spared suicide pilot fights in cause of peace

Every Sunday evening finds Masamichi Shida among a group of antiwar protesters outside the train station in Kamakura, south of Tokyo, singing songs opposing Japan's participation in the U.S.-led campaign in Iraq.
Japan Times
JAPAN / 60 YEARS,AND ONWARD
Aug 13, 2005

Carmakers owe success to warplanes

The Japanese automobile industry has become a symbol of the nation's stellar postwar growth, but few may be aware that its rise owes much to the engineers who helped develop military aircraft during the war.
JAPAN / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 12, 2005

Bank lending key to postwar revival

When Hiroshige Nishizawa got a job at the now-defunct Industrial Bank of Japan more than 40 years ago, the new graduate was full of ambition.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / COUNTER CULTURE
Aug 12, 2005

A little more love is in store for you

It's not often that I get to write about a shop that really gets me excited, but Colour By Numbers pushes more than a few of my buttons. It debuted in Daikanyama two weeks ago, one year to the day after the opening of its Aoyama sister store Loveless, and carries a big selection of creations by Japan-based...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2005

Long-term value of new peace memorial

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine have unduly been compounded as a diplomatic issue in Japan's relations with China and South Korea. It seems that Chinese and Korean leaders consider the visits supportive of moves by some Japanese to "legitimize the wrongs of the past."
COMMENTARY
Aug 10, 2005

No rationalization for Nagasaki attack

NEW DELHI -- History is written by victors and thus abounds in well-cultivated rationalizations for the winners' actions, however unjustifiable or gory they might be. Vanquishers are rarely burdened by guilt. Sometimes the rationalization stops with their first major slaughter in a war, as if their willful...
CULTURE / Music
Aug 7, 2005

Los Van Van

Fusing a variety of Latin rhythms into a potent, down-to-earth style, Los Van Van has been packing dance floors for over 30 years and shows no sign of slowing down. A Cuban institution, this wild, 15 member band is not only the most successful Latin group to arrive on the world stage from Cuba (at least,...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 7, 2005

Learning a foreign language is a cultural journey, too

English students of Japan, unite! You have nothing to lose but your (conversation school) chains!
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2005

How London blitzed Paris for the Games

SINGAPORE -- London's winning bid for the 2012 Olympics at the 117th Session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Singapore came as a surprise July 6. The IOC voted 54-50 for London after Madrid, New York and Moscow were eliminated in the earlier rounds. French newspapers were already reporting...
MORE SPORTS
Aug 4, 2005

Kitajima shrugs off loss at worlds

Olympic double gold medalist Kosuke Kitajima put the disappointment of missing out on a gold medal at the world swimming championships behind him and said Wednesday that his personal best time in the 100-meter breaststroke final has given him a platform to build on.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 29, 2005

70, and still a catch

A man in a cap and Wellington boots is holding a glistening metal pick in one hand, a small lump of flesh in the other. And he's beckoning me over.
EDITORIALS
Jul 20, 2005

'Colossal, collective failure'

A decade ago, a terrible tragedy was visited on the citizens of Srebrenica, a small town in Bosnia. At the height of the war over Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serb military forces systematically slaughtered all of the town's Muslim men and boys. What is worse, this massacre occurred under the eye of the United...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 17, 2005

TSE must think global: new chief

The Tokyo Stock Exchange needs to be a world-class stock exchange, otherwise Japan will lose its economic clout, Tokyo Stock Exchange Inc. Chairman Taizo Nishimuro says.
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2005

Oil-price rises may hold recovery hostage: experts

Rising oil prices have yet to faze Japan. But with oil experts projecting further hikes to as much as $80 a barrel, the nation should brace itself for direct and indirect hits on its recovery in the not-so-distant future, economists say.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 6, 2005

Consciously painting the subconscious

One of my favorite paintings is one by a trained elephant that I picked up on holiday in Thailand daubed by a trained elephant. It's not a very good one, but the story behind it makes it special -- highlighting one of the aspects by which art has come to be judged.
EDITORIALS
Jul 4, 2005

The increasing threat of AIDS

The Seventh International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP), which opened in Kobe on Friday, comes at a time when the HIV/AIDS epidemic is spreading rapidly from Africa to Asia. The message is loud and clear: Without stepped-up efforts to combat the crisis, it could reach serious proportions...
COMMENTARY
Jul 4, 2005

America's blase approach to doomsday

LOS ANGELES -- The policy of the United States, at the moment the world's only superpower, lacks an overall sense of urgency about the spread and possible use of nuclear weapons. In all probability, this lapse will someday lead to immense tragedy.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 2005

Security and human health

Human security remains a contested concept among scholars. Yet it is attractive to policymakers because it provides a template for practical action. On public health, for example, human security implies policies for correcting state shortcomings in protecting people against the most commonly prevalent...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 3, 2005

Puccini's masterpiece transcends its age

Giacomo Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" is one of most beloved operas of all time. Musically rich, dramatically taut and shamelessly wringing every last drop of sentiment from its tale of innocence betrayed, it shows Puccini at the top of his form. Yet its seductive beauty and the emotional immediacy disguise...
EDITORIALS
Jul 2, 2005

Protection in a modern economy

The recent theft of data from some 40 million credit-card accounts in the United States is another reminder of the insecurities of the digital world. Electronic commerce continues to rise in volume but consumers, retailers, financial institutions and other parts of the business chain have not yet adjusted...
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2005

AIDS time bomb is Asia: Kobe forum

KOBE — Medical professionals, scholars, community leaders and those who are HIV positive from around Asia and the Pacific gathered Friday in Kobe to begin a five-day conference on the region's growing HIV/AIDS crisis.
MORE SPORTS
Jun 27, 2005

Brazilians too strong for Japanese volleyballers

Japan failed to capitalize on a two-set lead over powerhouse Brazil and lost 3-2 in a game between unbeaten teams in the preliminary round of the women's volleyball World Grand Prix on Sunday.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past