Visualizing Magnitude: WWII

Humans are terrible at numbers. You can easily see a difference between one apple and four apples, but what about 1000, 10000, 100000, etc? It becomes more and more difficult. To understand history and current events better, it is good to put numbers in perspective.

Thunder of Hope

Art by 黒烏龍

2016 was not a great year. Today, I would like to share with you a true story that happened almost 75 years ago. Let us not lose hope in humanity!

Changing Japanese Beauty

Art by Hiroe Rei

Unit 731

Unit 731 (731 部隊, Nana-san-ichi butai) was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and World War II. It was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes carried out by Japanese personnel.

From 1936 to 1942 approximately 12,000 men, women and children were murdered in Unit 731, but the atrocities committed there were physically worse than in the Nazi death camps: their suffering lasted much longer, and not one prisoner survived.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki Remembered

(Picture Source)

Hashima Island (Gunkanjima)

“Battleship Island” is one among 505 uninhabited islands in the Nagasaki Prefecture about 15 kilometers from Nagasaki itself. The island was populated from 1887 to 1974 as a coal mining facility. In 1959, its population density was 835 people per hectare (83,500 people/km2) for the whole island, or 1,391 per hectare (139,100 people/km2) for the residential district, the highest population density ever recorded worldwide.

Japan’s Apology to Prisoners of War

Sixty-seven years ago this month, on April 9, 1942, I was surrendered to the Japanese Imperial Army on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines. At my first prison camp, the Japanese commandant turned to the American prisoners of war (POWs) and told us that we were “lower than dogs” and “they (the Japanese) would treat us that way for the rest of our lives.” Then he said, “We will never be friends with the piggish Americans.”

Modern Samurai: Gun vs Sword

Old Photographs of the Bakumatsu-Meiji Periods

Taken by Beato. Entitled “Japanese doctor, Azuma Ian and patient “. A bald doctor wearing a kimono with the family emblem and a sword takes the pulse of a young woman patient. A kettle sits on a brazier in the background, but this may be the residence of the doctor.

“Japanese Old Photographs of the Bakumatsu-Meiji Periods” at the University of Nagasaki Library is the largest collection of old photographs, approximately 6,000, taken all over Japan from the Bakumatsu through to the Meiji period.

The Origin of Japanese Snowman (Yuki-Daruma)

You might have noticed that Japanese snowmen look different from their Western counterparts. Let’s examine their origin.

Attack on Pearl Harbor

On Sunday morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese navy attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which later played a role in the US involvement in the WWII.

How to Choose English Translation of The Tale of Genji

If you are planning to read what some consider the world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji, several translations can guide you through the fascinating world of the Heian Period. Let us examine major English translations of The Tale of Genji.