Tag - world-war-i

 
 

WORLD WAR I

Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 18, 2017
'Homecomings: The Belated Return of Japan's Lost Soldiers': Portraits of lives transformed by war
It's staggering to think that, at the end of the Pacific War, almost 7 million Japanese servicemen and civilians were awaiting repatriation in various parts of Asia.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 15, 2017
Historical truths can take decades to unearth
Journalist Eidai Hayashi is battling cancer. At 83 years old, he can barely keep hold of his fountain pen, since the pain has spread to every part of his body.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 4, 2017
'International Relations and the Origins of the Pacific War' draws troubling analogies across history
Ko Unoki's overview of Japanese-U.S. relations from 1853 to 1941 is written for a general reader and as such is easy to read. However, the bulk of the book is disappointing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 28, 2017
Translated A-bomb book reminds us of the horrors of war
A recently released English translation of a Japanese book about 321 junior high school students killed by the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima is a poignant reminder of the inescapable suffering and militaristic indoctrination of youth at the time.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 19, 2017
U.N. Charter's anachronistic enemy state clauses
It's high time the U.N. shed its image as an institution created by the victorious Allied powers and create a level playing field for all its members.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 16, 2017
Japan's 'comfort women' error
In late December, South Korean activists stationed a statue of a young woman across from the Japanese consulate in Busan. Seated upright in a chair with her hands clasped in her lap, she stares intently, solemnly toward the consulate.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 16, 2017
Steadily implement 'comfort women' agreement
North Korea's leader stated in his New Year's address that the country "entered the final stage of preparation for the test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile," threatening the peace and stability of the international community. Last year, North Korea conducted two nuclear tests and launched more than 20 ballistic missiles in order to enhance its capabilities. Pyongyang's nuclear and missile development has reached a new level that could pose a direct threat even to the United States.
Japan Times
TENNIS
Jan 12, 2017
Kosei Kamo, 1955 U.S. Open men's doubles champion, dies at 84
Former tennis player Kosei Kamo, one of only two Japanese men who have won a title at a Grand Slam tournament after World War II, has died of a heart attack, the Japan Tennis Association said Thursday. He was 84.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 24, 2016
Japan reconsiders and reinterprets the Pearl Harbor attack
In May, U.S. President Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to make a historic visit to Hiroshima, the city that became the birthplace of the age of nuclear warfare. It should come as no surprise that Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is scheduled to make a reciprocal gesture of reconciliation this week, possibly making him the first sitting Japanese prime minister to visit the USS Arizona Memorial.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 24, 2016
Is Abe the wrong messenger for Pearl Harbor?
In the American lexicon, "Pearl Harbor" is synonymous with treachery and betrayal. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, pundits invoked the term in ways that have taken many Japanese aback, surprised that the old associations linger and uncomfortable with the wartime incident being compared to a terrorist act.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Dec 3, 2016
Memories of 1941 Pearl Harbor attack continue to affect U.S., Japan in Asia
On Dec. 7, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into World War II. The attack, carried out at dawn by Japanese fighter planes launched from aircraft carriers, was a then relatively new form of naval warfare that shocked the American public.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 26, 2016
'Japanese Girl at the Siege of Changchun': Remembering a traumatic moment in China's history
Homare Endo's memoir, "Japanese Girl at the Siege of Changchun," vividly captures the psychological and physical trauma of surviving war. Today, Endo is a professor emeritus at the University of Tsukuba, but she writes from the perspective of her 7-year-old self, lyrically revealing the horror of one of World War II's dark moments, when between 150,000 and 300,000 civilians starved to death during a five-month siege by People's Liberation Army at Changchun in 1948.
Japan Times
TENNIS
Nov 10, 2016
Tennis pioneer Ishiguro dies at 80
Osamu Ishiguro, Japan's first professional tennis player after World War II and the father of actor Ken Ishiguro, died Wednesday, his family said Thursday. He was 80.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 29, 2016
'Countdown to Pearl Harbor': A different view of Japan's entry into World War II
In "Countdown to Pearl Harbor," Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steve Twomey vividly retells and reappraises the events leading to the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 26, 2016
Japan scores tragic own goal
The Abe government's position on 'comfort women' is damaging Japan's international reputation and playing into China's hands.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 1, 2016
'The Night of the New Moon': Life in a Japanese POW camp
No incident in Japan's history is more controversial than the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Fearing that a modern generation saw only the "microcosm" of these tragic events, Laurens van der Post wanted to illustrate the "macrocosm" of the wider Pacific War in "The Night of the New Moon." First published in 1970, this account of his time in a Japanese prisoner-of-war POW camp is one of van der Post's two books that inspired Nagisa Oshima's film "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence."
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 16, 2016
Historical facts vanish in Putin's memory holes
Modern tyrannies depend on state control of national memories — retroactive truths established by government fiat.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 16, 2016
Times may seem bad, but 2016 isn't the new 1936
Unlike in the 1930s, the world is not on the brink of any great and awful calamity.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 6, 2016
The Long Defeat
In "The Long Defeat," Akiko Hashimoto explores how Japan's World War II loss has been remembered. More sociologist than historian, she does this by looking beyond political speeches and newspaper editorials and examines how memories manifest in the media, in classrooms and in the home.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 13, 2016
'Ishibumi': Tragic history set in stone
An annual ritual on Japanese television on or around Aug. 6 is a number of special programs about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truth be told, after many years in this country I tune out more than I tune in. Just as the bombings were political acts, so are the many memorial programs that repeat an unimpeachable message — "No more Hiroshimas and Nagasakis" — with an implied subtext of Japan as blameless victim that elides more than it illuminates.

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