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August 23, 2025
 

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IMPERIAL JAPANESE ARMY

Kenta Torihama, 33, often describes kamikaze pilots as "human beings like us."
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2025
Passing on the stories of kamikaze pilots as 'human beings, not heroes'
Kenta Torihama, 33, says the pilots "had people they wanted to protect, and they departed (on their suicide missions) after much agony and anguish."
Inside the Mount Zozan underground bunker, which was once planned as a relocation site for government agencies, on May 22 in the city of Nagano
JAPAN / Society
Aug 19, 2025
Nagano residents recall wartime efforts to build replacement military HQ
The replacement headquarters was not completed, but construction continued until the day of Japan's surrender in the war.
Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
JAPAN / History / Longform
Aug 15, 2025
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers
An decades-long effort to recover the remains of those who died during World War II, most of them abroad, may be entering its final phase.
Former teacher Satoshi Ito speaks during an interview in Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture, in June. Ito underwent training for guerrilla warfare at a secret school to prepare for a possible battle in mainland Japan during World War II.
JAPAN
Aug 14, 2025
War must never be repeated, says WWII guerrilla commander
Former teacher Satoshi Ito, now 102, said he was a pawn of the military, like many others.
Katsutoshi Takegami, 77, in his storehouse attic where he discovered his father's Unit 1644 documents
JAPAN / History
Aug 13, 2025
Hidden rosters and the legacy of Japan’s germ warfare
In a dusty box, a Nagano man finds proof his father served in Nanjing, China, with Unit 1644, part of Japan’s covert biological weapons network during World War II.
Hideo Shimizu, 95, says he cannot forget seeing the prisoners' bloody wills scribbled on the walls of prison cells at Unit 731 in 1945.
JAPAN / History
Aug 13, 2025
The indelible memory of being a part of Unit 731
For 95-year-old Hideo Shimizu, the 4½ months he spent with the biological and chemical warfare unit of the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Army were just like yesterday.
Akio Kuroi holds a photograph of his father, Keijiro, as he speaks during an interview in Tokyo in April about how his father had changed after World War II.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 13, 2025
'War trauma' transformed caring father into a complete stranger
A growing number of family members of former Japanese servicemen are sharing their experiences, prompting the government to launch a survey to document such realities.
A screenshot of eBay shows war relics including swords and gas masks being put on sale.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2025
Large number of Japanese war relics still offered on auction sites
Items such as swords that belonged to soldiers of the Imperial Japanese military and protective hoods used during air raids can be found on eBay.
A screenshot of a Chinese box office app showing info on the film "731"
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2025
Release of Unit 731-themed film delayed in China
"731" had been drawing attention in China even ahead of its planned release.
Masayuki Yamauchi teaches junior high school students about the history of Okunoshima, an island in Takehara, Hiroshima Prefecture, in May.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2025
80 years on, former teacher conveys history of hidden island in World War II
The tiny island in Hiroshima Prefecture hosted a poison gas plant of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, leading to its removal from maps for confidentiality purposes.
A building in the city of Osaka that served as the Osaka Army Arsenal's chemical analysis laboratory during World War II
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2025
Researcher seeks to save Osaka Army Arsenal as 'negative legacy'
The military factory manufactured artillery for the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Army during World War II and employed up to around 66,000 people.
Kunshiro Kiyozumi, 97, who was the youngest crew member of the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-58 in World War II, on his way to a restaurant to have lunch in Matsuyama, Japan, on April 29.
JAPAN / History
Jul 29, 2025
Last soldiers of Imperial Japanese Army have a warning for younger generations
"In their last breaths, no one shouted for the long life of the emperor,” said one veteran about his comrades. "They called out for their mothers, whom they would never see again.”
Ex-serviceman Izumi Murakami speaks of his experience during World War II, when he was still a child, in an interview in Kasuga, Fukuoka Prefecture, in May.
JAPAN / History / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Jul 14, 2025
Man inspired as a boy by WWII-era commando questions Japan's past actions
Izumi Murakami, now 92, joined the Air Self-Defense Force, but he concedes now that "there is nothing good that comes out of war."
Former boy soldier Yoshimitsu Zukeyama speaks of his wartime experience during an interview in May in Ogimi, Okinawa Prefecture.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2025
Battle of Okinawa turned child into a 'ghost soldier' still haunted by memories
Emotionally and physically depleted, the boy began to unravel after the war ended, with locals calling him a “ghost soldier.”
A replica of a suicide note left behind by a surgeon involved in the 1945 vivisection of U.S. prisoners of war is seen on display at Kyushu University in the city of Fukuoka on May 17.
JAPAN / History
Jun 11, 2025
Documents of 1945 vivisection of U.S. POWs on exhibit at Fukuoka museum
The documents relate to the experimental surgeries performed on eight captured U.S. soldiers at Kyushu Imperial University in the late stages of World War II.
The entrance to a cave on Okinawa’s main island where a former Japanese soldier confessed to having killed a mother and child during World War II
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Jun 2, 2025
How the scars of war in Okinawa are being healed by a psychologist
A clinical psychologist has formed grief care groups for survivors of war across Okinawa to help try to heal their emotional scars.
Lists containing the names and details of members of biological warfare units that the former Imperial Japanese Army had stationed in China
JAPAN
May 21, 2025
Name lists of former Imperial Japanese Army biowarfare units released
The National Archives has disclosed details of the members of two units based in China to researchers looking to uncover the mysteries surrounding them.
Tetsuo Sato, a 105-year-old former soldier, talks about the Imphal Operation, in Murakami City, Niigata Prefecture, on March 30.
JAPAN
May 3, 2025
'War must never happen again': Former Japanese soldier recalls battle of Imphal
The Imphal operation during World War II is known as one of the most reckless battles waged by the Imperial Japanese Army.
Michiko Takagaki talks about the personal items she has displayed of a relative who died in the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, in Fuchu, Hiroshima Prefecture, on April 26.
JAPAN / History
Apr 29, 2025
Items of an A-bomb victim who died the day he enlisted to be displayed
Just 15 minutes after enlisting in the now-defunct Imperial Japanese military, an atomic bomb was dropped some 700 meters from where he stood.
Reiko Okada shows her ink paintings that depict female students making paper balloons as she talks about her wartime experience on Okunoshima island in Hiroshima Prefecture.
JAPAN / History / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Nov 25, 2024
The stories behind Japan's WWII 'balloon bombs'
Former students are detailing wartime work that had the potential to unleash devastation.
Japan to revise romanization rules for first time in 70 years
The Agency for Cultural Affairs is recommending replacing the government’s long-standing Kunrei system with more widely used Hepburn-style spellings.
JR East cancels luxury train run over crew's boozing
East Japan Railway said Thursday that it will cancel one trip of a luxury overnight sleeper service, which was originally scheduled to depart from Ueno Station in Tokyo on Aug. 30, after crew members were found to have been drinking alcohol on duty.
Demystifying the manufacturing success of China
China’s massive scale, strong education system and competitive local governance have enabled it to reach the technological frontier and dominate high-tech manufacturing despite its low per capita gross domestic product.
Infectious diseases to watch for in Japan this summer amid surge of cases
An illustration of a colony of the Bordetella pertussis bacterium that causes pertussis, or whooping cough. As of Aug. 10, there were 64,467 cases reported this year, according to the latest data from the Japan Institute for Health Security.
103-year-old remembers Soviet attack right after WWII
Shoichi Takahashi holds a photo of himself when he was younger, in Otaru, Hokkaido, on May 17.
Alicia Keys closed Summer Sonic, but J-pop owned it
Summer Sonic’s 2025 lineup demonstrated its strength, showcasing the latest in J-pop, including “new kawaii” act Fruits Zipper.
Big burgers and bigger ambitions for Japan's Burger King
Kazuhiro Nomura, president of BK Japan Holdings, which operates Burger King in Japan
Tokyo crowned No.1 'workation' spot
Workations were a burgeoning trend in the corporate world for years before the COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged it.
Atsushi Kitagawara’s exhibition finds poetry in architecture
The inverted cone, one of Atsushi Kitagawara’s six signature elements in architecture, is a key feature of the Nakamura Keith Haring Collection museum building.
Candidates preparing to make final pitches for Sawamura Award
Hawks pitcher Livan Moinelo has a 1.13 ERA in 19 starts this season.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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
By Alex K.T. Martin

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