National / History | THE LIVING PAST Feb 15, 2014

Once upon a time, China anointed a 'King of Japan'

by Michael Hoffman

In 1401, barely a century after the Mongols' aborted invasions of Japan, and 600-odd years before Japan and China fell out over the Senkaku islets, a Chinese emperor conferred upon a Japanese shogun the title "King of Japan." Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408) was overjoyed at this ...

National / History | THE LIVING PAST Jul 27, 2013

What if Columbus had reached his goal: Japan?

by Michael Hoffman

Every school child knows that in 1492 Christopher Columbus discovered America. Every school child knows wrongly. When the Genovese explorer's three ships sailed westward from Palo de la Frontera, Spain, on Aug. 2, 1492, he was bound, he thought, for "the noble island of ...