Tag - u-s-history

 
 

U S HISTORY

Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 21, 2011
Coming of age in Kamakura
When I first went to Kamakura I was 16 and full of wonder and anger and curiosity; a coiled hope poised at the edge of experience.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 20, 2009
Alexandria's library: A phoenix amid the tea fields of Uji
Recalling the glorious Heian Period in Japan's history from 794 to 1185 at once conjures up images of a world of courtiers, 12-layered kimono, elegant poetry competitions beside winding streams — and secret trysts in scented chambers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 11, 2009
Sankeien: Great love in a garden almost grows
Miho leans out over the Lotus Pond to get a good photo of one of the bright-red flowers when the camera slips out of her hand. Standing next to her, I instinctively lean forward, stretch out my hand (my reflexes, even if I say so myself, are very good) and pluck the camera out of the air with ease.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 21, 2009
Enoshima: Stepping back into 'old Japan'
Crossing Enoshima Benten Bridge to Enoshima Island in Sagami Bay, 80 km south of Tokyo, I was stopped in my tracks by a pair of mustard-eyed dragons slithering down gray granite lanterns. A man dismounted his bicycle and asked if I needed help. No, only his story, I replied.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 10, 2009
Kawasaki risen from the grit with plenty to offer
Back in December 1972, having just taken a job with a Japan Airlines subsidiary, I moved into the company's bachelors dormitory at Miyauchi 2-chome in Kawasaki's Nakahara Ward.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / GRAND OLD HOTELS
Oct 24, 2008
Jogashima: Awash with thousands of cherry blossoms
The escalator at the Keikyu Line's Misakiguchi Station transported me to a windswept hilltop where a booth provided information on places to pick mikan (tangerines) and shops sold tuna, toasted laver bread and horse mackerel seasoned with mirin (a rice wine). I boarded a bus. As it descended between mikan orchards and freshly planted fields, I noted further intimations of the sea — trucks emblazoned with "Tuna Express" and "High-Class Blue Fin Tuna." After arriving at the harbor, I strolled along a waterfront crowded with shoals of tuna restaurants.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 15, 2008
Japan, Brazil mark a century of settlement, family ties
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of a Japanese migration to Brazil. In 1908, hundreds of farmers moved to the South American country, dreaming of making their fortunes there before returning to their hometowns.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 9, 2007
Maizuru, Kyoto: For those with an interest in Cold War spy novels
Located less than two hours from central Kyoto city, the port town of Maizuru is a world away from ancient capital of Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 12, 2007
Japan's Paradise Lived
It's a strange world we're about to enter.
LIFE
Aug 12, 2007
Has another society of such superlatives ever existed at all?
The fascination of the Heian Period (794-1185) lies in the fact that in all world history there is nothing quite like it. It would be hard to imagine a culture more exclusive, more fastidiously refined, more smugly incurious about the unknown, more unwarlike, more tearfully melancholic, more sensitive to beauty, more closed to the outside world, more morally ambiguous — the list of superlatives goes on and on. Perhaps none has ever existed, writes Michael Hoffman.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jan 16, 2007
Hiroo Onoda
Hiroo Onoda, 84, is a former member of an Imperial Japanese Army intelligence unit, an elite commando during World War II who was sent to Lubang Island in the Philippines in 1944 to conduct guerrilla warfare and gather military intelligence. Trained in clandestine operations, his mission was to sneak behind enemy lines, conduct surveillance and survive independently until issued new orders. He did exactly that for the next 30 years. Long after Japan's surrender in 1945, he continued to serve his country in the jungle, convinced that the Greater East Asia War was still being fought. He lived on mostly bananas and mangoes, evading many Japanese search parties and the local Philippine police, all of whom he believed were enemy spies. In March 1974, at age 52, a Japanese man who had run across Onoda brought his former superior to the island with instructions that relieved him of his military duties. After a brief return to Japan, he moved to Brazil where he became a successful rancher. He came back to Japan in the 1980s and established the Onoda Nature School with the goal of educating children about the value of life. His incredible adventures on Lubang are detailed in his book "No Surrender: My Thirty-year War."
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 11, 2004
Discriminating professor takes provincial view of Izumo
IZUMO-JIN: The People of Izumo, by Daisetsu Fujioka, translated by Caroline E. Kano and Toshiko Yamakuse. Matsue: Harvest Publications, 2002, 138 pp., with maps. 1200 yen (paper).

Longform

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.
Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree