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​WWII

Past visits by top Japanese leaders to Yasukuni Shrine, which also honors convicted war criminals, have infuriated China and South Korea, and no prime minister has visited since 2013.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 17, 2025
Takaichi sends offering to Yasukuni Shrine but will not visit
Top Japanese leaders visiting the shrine also honoring convicted war criminals have infuriated China and South Korea in the past, and no prime minister has visited since 2013.
Argentine pianist Martha Argerich (left) performs on the atomic-bombed piano, accompanied by Japanese pianist Hayato Sumino. In the right foreground is a digital piano using electronic sound sources, on Wednesday in Hiroshima.
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2025
Digitized sounds unveiled of piano that survived atomic bombing of Hiroshima
Concerns about the aging piano's fragility prompted the creation of a project to make a digital recording of its 88 keys recorded at six volume levels.
Sanae Takaichi visits Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Aug. 15, before she was elected the leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party earlier this month.
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2025
Over 40% back Takaichi visiting Yasukuni Shrine, poll shows
Sanae Takaichi, leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has repeatedly visited the shrine, which enshrines Class-A war criminals from World War II among the war dead.
Paul Post, a retired Dutch systems specialist, looks at the war-time diaries of his father, who described working in the Netherlands' diamond bureau during the Nazi occupation, in Driehuis, Netherlands, on Oct. 6.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Oct 13, 2025
How a quiet Dutch retiree helped uncover Nazi-stolen art in Argentina
The unlikely role of the man, who found his father's Nazi-era diaries, in the discovery of a stolen painting in Argentina showcases the complexities of finding Nazi-looted art.
Nihon Hidankyo co-chair Terumi Tanaka speaks to reporters during an event held in Tokyo on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 12, 2025
Hidankyo and others hold event 80 years after atomic bombings
Outside the venue, attendees spoke with those who experienced the massive U.S. bombing of Tokyo in March 1945.
Natsuki Kai, a high school student who attended last year's Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony as a student peace messenger, is interviewed in Hiroshima in September.
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2025
One year after Hidankyo's Nobel Prize, student remains true to the cause
Natsuki Kai's great-grandparents were among those exposed to the U.S. atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba holds a news conference in Tokyo on Friday to deliver his statement on World War II
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 10, 2025
Ishiba statement explores Japan's failure to avoid World War II
Ishiba’s message was released in a personal capacity, without the formal approval of his entire Cabinet.
Legal scholar Shigeto Hozumi conducted some 250 lecture sessions for Empress Nagako, posthumously known as Empress Kojun, between 1924 and 1950.
JAPAN / History
Oct 9, 2025
Late Empress Kojun received lectures on World War II from experts, records show
In a lecture in February 1942, after Japan went to war with the United States, one scholar explained to Empress Kojun speeches delivered to parliament by the then prime minister.
Empress Nagako, posthumously known as Empress Kojun, fixes the hair of Emperor Hirohito, known posthumously as Emperor Showa, at the Nasu Imperial Villa in Tochigi Prefecture in August 1947.
JAPAN / History
Oct 9, 2025
Official records of late Empress Kojun's life include her experiences in World War II
The empress spent Aug. 15, 1945, when Emperor Showa declared Japan's surrender in World War II, inside a bunker facility that had served as her home, the records state.
Sanae Takaichi speaks to reporters on Aug. 15, the 80th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II, following her visit to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 8, 2025
Takaichi may skip Yasukuni visit during Autumn Festival
The new LDP chief is apparently taking into account the impact a visit might have ahead of busy diplomatic schedule and how it could hurt relations with coalition partner Komeito.
Participants from various countries take part in a discussion at a global forum to discuss eliminating nuclear damage on Monday in the city of Hiroshima.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2025
Nuclear victims hold global forum in Hiroshima
The event was held for the first time in 10 years.
Articles in World War II-era women’s magazines emphasized their responsibilities in supporting soldiers and their roles at home bearing and rearing children.
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Oct 6, 2025
Lingering ‘Showa Model’ gender roles keep women sidelined
The idea of husbands working while women stay home goes back to the prewar Civil Code, which stated that women were subordinates who required their husband’s permission to work.
A delegation of Japanese war orphans in China arrive at an airport in Harbin, China, on Sept. 10.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2025
Japanese war orphans make what is likely their final trip to China
This is expected to be their last large-scale visit to China as the war orphans have grown older 80 years after the end of the war.
Hisao Ito, a former resident of Tinian in the Mariana Islands, points to himself in a family photo taken when he was a child.
JAPAN / History
Sep 24, 2025
World War II survivor bears witness to family tragedy in Tinian mass suicide
Eighty-one years after the mass suicide, the memory of his father killing two of his sisters remains lodged in the survivor's mind, yet he holds no grudge against his father.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba addresses the 80th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 24, 2025
Ishiba highlights Japan's postwar quest for peace at U.N.
The prime minister emphasized the need to confront history, apparently reflecting his intention to issue a statement on the 80th anniversary of the end of the war.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is preparing to issue a statement on World War II after the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election on Oct. 4, government officials said Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 24, 2025
Ishiba to release WWII message after LDP presidential race
To prevent the statement from impacting the LDP race, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has decided to release it just before his expected resignation early next month.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping, along with his Russian and North Korean counterparts, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, attends a military parade in Beijing on Sept. 3 to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2025
An Orwellian lesson from Xi and Putin
The World War II anniversary parade in Beijing was not about history — it was about what comes next.
The United Nations Security Council holds a ministerial meeting on Ukraine during the U.N. General Assembly at the body's headquarters in New York on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2025
The U.S. assault on the U.N. rests on a tragic misunderstanding
The Trump administration views the U.N. as a useless, woke cesspool. Instead, it reflects the world as it is, assembled to “save humanity from hell.”
Hidetada Yoshida, 95, speaks of his experience mining for uranium ores in Fukushima Prefecture during World War II.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Sep 22, 2025
Memories of man's WWII mining experience are hazy, but pain persists
As a student mobilized to mine ores, Hidetada Yoshida, now 95, suffered an injury so severe it still wakes him at night.
"Shake hands with Lima-chan," a statue that shares the name of the Peruvian capital looks in the direction of Peru, where a sister statue, "Sakura-chan," is located. Erected in Yokohama's Rinko Park in 1999, it commemorates Peruvian-Japanese friendship.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / Longform
Sep 22, 2025
The journey of Peru’s Nikkei: Finding identity in Japan
From sugar plantations in Peru to factory floors in Japan, the Nikkei story is one of migration, resilience and identity.

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