Tag - wwii

 
 

WWII

Former Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba calls for the swift restoration of a deleted section of a 1940 parliamentary record containing an anti-military speech criticizing Japan's war with China, on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 28, 2025
Ishiba wants 1940 anti-military speech record restored
Lawmaker Takao Saito denounced Japan's military campaign in China, and was subsequently expelled from the lower chamber of the Diet.
Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
JAPAN / History / Longform
Oct 27, 2025
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell
A sealed 1930s subway platform beneath Shimbashi Station still holds traces of what the capital looked like before the war.
Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and Princess Aiko meet with a family member of a victim of the Tokyo air raids on Thursday.
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2025
Japan’s imperial family mourns 1945 Tokyo air raid victims
Tokyo’s Sumida Ward memorial preserves the remains of some 105,000 people, including those who died in the massive air raid.
Then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama issues a statement on the 50th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II on Aug. 15, 1995. Murayama died on Friday at the age of 101.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 20, 2025
China's Xi mourns death of ex-PM Murayama
The Chinese president offered his condolences in a message sent to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Sunday.
A visitor makes his way to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on the first day of its annual autumn festival on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 20, 2025
Takaichi skips Yasukuni visit during autumn festival
With a vote on the next prime minister set for Tuesday, the new LDP president apparently took into account the possibility that any visit could adversely impact foreign affairs.
Past visits by top Japanese leaders to Yasukuni Shrine, which also honors convicted war criminals, have infuriated China and South Korea, and no prime minister has visited since 2013.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 17, 2025
Takaichi sends offering to Yasukuni Shrine but will not visit
Top Japanese leaders visiting the shrine also honoring convicted war criminals have infuriated China and South Korea in the past, and no prime minister has visited since 2013.
Former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama speaks during an interview in Tokyo in March 2007.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 17, 2025
Former PM Tomiichi Murayama dies at age 101
Murayama, who delivered a key statement apologizing for Japan’s World War II aggression, died on Friday in his native Oita.
At an Oct. 15 performance in Hiroshima, Argentinian pianist Martha Argerich (left) plays a piano that survived the atomic bombing of the city. She is accompanied by Japanese pianist Hayato Sumino. In the right foreground is a digital piano developed to reproduce the notes of the famous piano.
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2025
Digitized sounds unveiled of piano that survived atomic bombing of Hiroshima
Concerns about the aging piano's fragility prompted the creation of a project to make a digital recording of its 88 keys recorded at six volume levels.
Sanae Takaichi visits Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Aug. 15, before she was elected the leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party earlier this month.
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2025
Over 40% back Takaichi visiting Yasukuni Shrine, poll shows
Sanae Takaichi, leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has repeatedly visited the shrine, which enshrines Class-A war criminals from World War II among the war dead.
Paul Post, a retired Dutch systems specialist, looks at the war-time diaries of his father, who described working in the Netherlands' diamond bureau during the Nazi occupation, in Driehuis, Netherlands, on Oct. 6.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Oct 13, 2025
How a quiet Dutch retiree helped uncover Nazi-stolen art in Argentina
The unlikely role of the man, who found his father's Nazi-era diaries, in the discovery of a stolen painting in Argentina showcases the complexities of finding Nazi-looted art.
Nihon Hidankyo co-chair Terumi Tanaka speaks to reporters during an event held in Tokyo on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 12, 2025
Hidankyo and others hold event 80 years after atomic bombings
Outside the venue, attendees spoke with those who experienced the massive U.S. bombing of Tokyo in March 1945.
Natsuki Kai, a high school student who attended last year's Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony as a student peace messenger, is interviewed in Hiroshima in September.
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2025
One year after Hidankyo's Nobel Prize, student remains true to the cause
Natsuki Kai's great-grandparents were among those exposed to the U.S. atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba holds a news conference in Tokyo on Friday to deliver his statement on World War II
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 10, 2025
Ishiba statement explores Japan's failure to avoid World War II
Ishiba’s message was released in a personal capacity, without the formal approval of his entire Cabinet.
Legal scholar Shigeto Hozumi conducted some 250 lecture sessions for Empress Nagako, posthumously known as Empress Kojun, between 1924 and 1950.
JAPAN / History
Oct 9, 2025
Late Empress Kojun received lectures on World War II from experts, records show
In a lecture in February 1942, after Japan went to war with the United States, one scholar explained to Empress Kojun speeches delivered to parliament by the then prime minister.
Empress Nagako, posthumously known as Empress Kojun, fixes the hair of Emperor Hirohito, known posthumously as Emperor Showa, at the Nasu Imperial Villa in Tochigi Prefecture in August 1947.
JAPAN / History
Oct 9, 2025
Official records of late Empress Kojun's life include her experiences in World War II
The empress spent Aug. 15, 1945, when Emperor Showa declared Japan's surrender in World War II, inside a bunker facility that had served as her home, the records state.
Sanae Takaichi speaks to reporters on Aug. 15, the 80th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II, following her visit to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 8, 2025
Takaichi may skip Yasukuni visit during Autumn Festival
The new LDP chief is apparently taking into account the impact a visit might have ahead of busy diplomatic schedule and how it could hurt relations with coalition partner Komeito.
Participants from various countries take part in a discussion at a global forum to discuss eliminating nuclear damage on Monday in the city of Hiroshima.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2025
Nuclear victims hold global forum in Hiroshima
The event was held for the first time in 10 years.
Articles in World War II-era women’s magazines emphasized their responsibilities in supporting soldiers and their roles at home bearing and rearing children.
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Oct 6, 2025
Lingering ‘Showa Model’ gender roles keep women sidelined
The idea of husbands working while women stay home goes back to the prewar Civil Code, which stated that women were subordinates who required their husband’s permission to work.
A delegation of Japanese war orphans in China arrive at an airport in Harbin, China, on Sept. 10.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2025
Japanese war orphans make what is likely their final trip to China
This is expected to be their last large-scale visit to China as the war orphans have grown older 80 years after the end of the war.
Hisao Ito, a former resident of Tinian in the Mariana Islands, points to himself in a family photo taken when he was a child.
JAPAN / History
Sep 24, 2025
World War II survivor bears witness to family tragedy in Tinian mass suicide
Eighty-one years after the mass suicide, the memory of his father killing two of his sisters remains lodged in the survivor's mind, yet he holds no grudge against his father.

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell