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​WWII

Tetsuo Sato, a 105-year-old former soldier, talks about the Imphal Operation, in Murakami City, Niigata Prefecture, on March 30.
JAPAN
May 3, 2025
'War must never happen again': Former Japanese soldier recalls battle of Imphal
The Imphal operation during World War II is known as one of the most reckless battles waged by the Imperial Japanese Army.
A view of Koror, Palau’s main town, on April 10
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 1, 2025
Inside the U.S. battle with China over a Pacific island paradise
Palau is again on the frontline as China and the United States and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control.
Michiko Takagaki talks about the personal items she has displayed of a relative who died in the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, in Fuchu, Hiroshima Prefecture, on April 26.
JAPAN / History
Apr 29, 2025
Items of an A-bomb victim who died the day he enlisted to be displayed
Just 15 minutes after enlisting in the now-defunct Imperial Japanese military, an atomic bomb was dropped some 700 meters from where he stood.
Visitors look at the preserved Atomic Bomb Dome in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in the city of Hiroshima in October.
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2025
80 years on, Japan's government seeks testimonies from all hibakusha
It is the first time in 30 years that the government has sought cooperation from all hibakusha over testimonies.
Wi Sung-lac, a South Korean lawmaker who advises presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung on diplomacy, is interviewed in Seoul on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 27, 2025
Aide to South Korean candidate suggests review of wartime labor solution
Wi did not provide specifics but said that a Lee administration might discuss historical issues more than the Yoon administration.
A "masakaki" tree offering bearing the name of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is put up at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN
Apr 21, 2025
Ishiba gives a ritual tree offering to Yasukuni Shrine
Ishiba has no plans to visit the shrine during its three-day spring festival.
Protesters march in Tokyo's upscale Ginza district Saturday, demanding relief for those who suffered during World War II.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 20, 2025
Protesters march for WWII relief for civilians and others who were overlooked
Participants accuse the government of discriminating against civilian victims and people from the former Japanese colonies when it comes to state compensation for war damage.
A child welfare center in Naha in May 1966
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Apr 14, 2025
In Okinawa, war trauma carried by orphans still lingers
“War orphans were pushed to the margins of society after the war," says one academic.
In a workshop organized by the Japanese American National Museum, teachers visited the site of an internment camp in Manzanar, California. Photo taken from YouTube.
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2025
Japanese American National Museum hit with subsidy cuts
The Japanese American National Museum, or JANM, in Los Angeles is struggling with subsidy cuts by the Elon Musk-led "Department of Government Efficiency," also known as DOGE.
Masatoshi Asari is one of Japan’s foremost living authorities on cherry trees and their blossoms.
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2025
The man who sent Japan's cherry blossoms out to the world
Masatoshi Asari's trees — symbols of peace and reconciliation — blossom in the U.K., U.S., Poland and China.
A person lays flowers for the crew members of the Imperial Japanese Navy's battleship Yamato who died in its sinking 80 years ago, during a memorial service held in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, on Monday.
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2025
Crew members of sunken battleship Yamato remembered on 80th anniversary
The ship sank off Cape Bonomisaki on Kagoshima's Satsuma Peninsula at 2:23 p.m. on April 7, 1945, with only 276 of the 3,332 crew members surviving.
Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako lay flowers at the Iwoto Islander Peace Cemetery Park on Iwo Jima on Monday.
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2025
Emperor and empress visit Iwo Jima battlefield to pay respects to war dead
Monday's trip to the island is the first by an emperor and an empress since the current Emperor Emeritus Akihito's and Empress Emerita Michiko's visit in 1994.
Some 100 people on Saturday mourned those who died in a mass suicide at the Chibichiri Gama cave in the village of Yomitan in Okinawa Prefecture 80 years ago in the final stages of World War II.
JAPAN
Apr 6, 2025
Victims of WWII mass suicide mourned in Okinawa
The mass suicide occurred in April 1945 during the Battle of Okinawa, the largest ground battle in Japan during the war.
Anti-Yoon protesters hold up placards reading "Let's build a democratic government!" during a rally in Seoul on Friday after South Korea's Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 5, 2025
Yoon's ouster prompts Japanese concerns about ties with South Korea
Japan is worried that Yoon's removal from power will undo the improvements in bilateral relations made under his administration.
Unexploded U.S. military ordnance found in the city of Nanjo, Okinawa Prefecture, on March 24
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2025
Unexploded ordnance still haunts Okinawa 80 years after WWII battle
Despite decades of clearance efforts, roughly 1,900 metric tons of deadly remnants are estimated to remain buried beneath the land.
Yoshiharu Kanai speaks during an interview in Fuchu, Hiroshima Prefecture, on March 6.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2025
Son of soldier killed on Iwo Jima continues collecting remains
Yoshiharu Kanai, 80, has been working to collect remains for over 20 years, wishing to return them to mainland Japan swiftly.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Defense Minister Gen Nakatani pose for a photo on Ioto, the far-flung Japanese island known widely as Iwo Jima, on Saturday for an event honoring those who died in bloody fighting there 80 years ago during World War II.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 29, 2025
Pentagon chief joins war memorial ceremony on first visit to Japan
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the alliance with Japan key to peace in the region, a view he said “will continue.”
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during an Upper House Budget Committee meeting on Friday.
JAPAN / History
Mar 28, 2025
Ishiba to visit Iwo Jima to honor soldiers who died in fierce WWII battle
He will be the first sitting prime minister to visit the island since April 2013, when then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a stopover.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba plans to set up an expert panel as early as April to reflect on lessons learned from Japan's defeat in World War II.
JAPAN / History
Mar 27, 2025
Ishiba eyes expert panel to reflect on lessons learned from WWII
The prime minister is unlikely to release a government-adopted statement to mark the 80th anniversary this year of Japan's surrender in the war.
A guard tower at Manzanar Internment Camp in Independence, California, in July 2013. Nearly 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were removed from their homes on the West Coast by the U.S. Army and sent to Manzanar and nine other internment camps between March 1942 and November 1945.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 26, 2025
Use of wartime powers revives internment camp memories
It took more than 40 years for the U.S. government to officially set the record straight that abusing the Alien Enemies Act during World War II was both illegal and immoral.

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Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’