Tag - wwii

 
 

WWII

Soldiers of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China attend training ahead of a military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Beijing on Aug. 20.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 27, 2025
China's rulers push party role before WWII anniversary
Under Chinese President Xi Jinping, special attention has been paid to pushing the "correct" interpretation of the complex history of the victory over Japan.
Japan's 2024 Olympic bronze medalists in team eventing pose for a photo at the memorial to Olympic medalist Takeichi Nishi on Iwo Jima in January.
OLYMPICS / Equestrian
Aug 27, 2025
Japan's equestrian team honors Olympic predecessor on Iwo Jima
Takeichi Nishi, known as Baron Nishi, was killed on Iwo Jima during World War II after capturing gold in show jumping at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.
Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako met two former residents of Iwo Jima on Tuesday at the Nasu Imperial Villa in the town of Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2025
Emperor and empress meet former Iwo Jima residents
Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako met two former residents of Iwo Jima, a remote Tokyo island in the Pacific, at the Nasu Imperial Villa in the town of Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, on Tuesday.
Eddie Laiche (right) speaks next to Konstantine Anthony, mayor of Burbank, California, in the city in December 2023.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2025
U.S. public growing critical of nuclear weapons 80 years after atomic bombings
A poll conducted this year showed that only 35% of adults in the U.S. viewed the atomic bombings as justified, while 31% said they were not justified.
Kunitake Toriya, a former corporal in the Imperial Japanese Army who had trained for a suicide attack mission, speaks about his wartime experiences in front of the photographs of his comrades at Tachiarai Peace Memorial Museum in Chikuzen, Fukuoka Prefecture, in June.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2025
Destined for death, former kamikaze pilot recalls wanting to live
Kunitake Toriya yelled "Banzai" in his heart when his suicide mission was called off. Now, 80 years on, he is determined to share his story.
Nuclear weapons may have prevented global war through deterrence, but today’s shifting threats require adaptable strategies and strong leadership to avoid catastrophe.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 26, 2025
How humanity can avoid starting World War III
As a new nuclear age dawns, the U.S. must once again adjust its policies with foresight and flexibility, resisting both technological determinism and political destabilization.
Japanese manga artist Tetsuya Chiba speaks during an interview in Tokyo on July 8.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2025
Manga artist Tetsuya Chiba hopes for no more wars
Through his works, Chiba looks to pass down stories from World War II to future generations.
Daiki Hama, lecturer at Tama University in Tokyo, shows his creation of a virtual Siberian internment camp and a virtual reality headset in April.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2025
Japanese lecturer digitally re-creates post-WWII Siberian detention camp
The virtual camp has been used for hands-on events for children at a museum and training sessions for student storytellers at the Maizuru Repatriation Memorial Museum.
Members of the student club Neo at Shuri High School receive words of gratitude from Haebaru Junior High School students after their workshop on June 6. They are Mei Nakazato (far left), Nanoka Hirata (second left), Yuzuyu Oyakawa (center), Hinano Yagi (second right) and Honomi Taira.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Aug 25, 2025
Okinawa high school students bring new approach to peace education
A high school group that held a workshop for junior high school students aims to bring a new approach to peace education by turning “passive learning” into something more personal.
Takemasa Kinjo, who was a high school student when his mother was killed by a U.S. Marine in 1974, looks on at the construction site of the new Henoko military base for U.S. forces near his residence in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, in June.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Aug 25, 2025
Decades after WWII, Okinawa is a reluctant host for U.S. troops
A string of incidents over the years involving American troops and base personnel, including sexual assault cases, have angered residents.
People hold Taiwanese flags during the event to commemorate the end of World War II at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Aug. 16.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 25, 2025
Taiwan and China battle it out in competing World War II narratives
Both sides are claiming credit for the victory over Japan.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and  Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba shake hands at joint press announcement after summit talks in Tokyo on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 24, 2025
At meeting rich in symbolism, Ishiba and South Korea's Lee agree to steadily build ties
In the two countries' first joint document in 17 years, the leaders agreed to work together "to advance future-oriented and mutually beneficial common interests."
Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emerita Michiko strolled through a cabbage field in Ohinata settlement in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, on Saturday.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2025
Emperor emeritus and empress emerita visit postwar settlement
The former Emperor and former Empress have frequently visited the settlement, developed by people who returned to Japan from Manchuria in northeastern China after World War II.
Chinese military personnel take part in a rehearsal ahead of the parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, which will be held on Sept. 3, in Beijing on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Aug 24, 2025
History, triumph and trauma to take center stage at China's WWII military parade
The event will be a projection of China's growing military might amid deep-seated mistrust in the West and territorial rows with neighboring countries.
At the memorial ceremony for the sinking of the Tsushima Maru evacuation ship, attendees observe a moment of silence in honor of the victims, in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture on Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2025
Victims of 1944 U.S. torpedo attack remembered in Japan
At least 1,484 of some 1,800 people aboard the Tsushima Maru, including 784 schoolchildren, lost their lives.
Ann Burroughs, head of the Japanese American National Museum, called it "inconceivable" for the United States to be "building concentration camps, denying the lessons learned 80 years ago."
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2025
Japanese American museum blasts Trump's use of internment camp to detain people
The Trump administration set up an immigration detention center within the grounds of an army base that was used during World War II as an internment camp for Japanese Americans.
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.
JAPAN / History / Longform
Aug 22, 2025
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
One man’s experience traces the capital's arc from wartime devastation to modern megacity in a story of resilience and reinvention.
"'Permanent peace' was uttered for the entire world. I hope there will be peace all over the world," said Michiko Suzuki, granddaughter of former Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2025
Granddaughter conveys former wartime prime minister's wish for peace
Michiko Suzuki, a granddaughter of former Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki, continues to convey his wish for peace through her writings and lectures.
Hiroyoshi Takizawa looks at pictures from his days in wartime Manchuria as a child during an interview in Nagano in June.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2025
A life upended by wartime mass suicides
Hiroyoshi Takizawa's life in Manchuria was comfortable at first. But when the Soviet Union invaded, his father, fearing the worst, chose mass suicide.
Students visit the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park in late April. Attitudes in Japan are shifting away from the traditional pacifist views that have held sway since the end of World War II.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Aug 20, 2025
Trump shock spurs Japan to think about the unthinkable: nuclear arms
There is a growing willingness to loosen the country’s decades-old pledge not to produce, possess or host nuclear weapons in its territory.

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