Japan

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• SOURCE: Yonhap News Agency
  4/29/2020
  

  Late 'Comfort Woman' Recognized for Lifelong Human Rights Activities with Amnesty Award

  Kim Bok-dong, a former sex slavery victim-turned human rights activist received a posthumous award from Amnesty International.

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• 4/5/2020
  

  The Atomic Bomb, War Room Intrigue and Emperor Hirohito's Decision to Surrender

  by David Dean Barrett

  The record of the Imperial Conferences makes clear two salient facts: that Emperor Hirohito ended the war, and he ended it because of the atomic bomb.

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• SOURCE: TIME
  3/24/2020
  

  Have the Olympics Ever Been Canceled? Here's the History

  Since the first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896, only three have been abandoned.

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• SOURCE: CNN
  3/8/2020
  

  History's Deadliest Air Raid Happened in Tokyo During World War II and You've Probably Never Heard of It

  With a death toll as high as 100,000 people, mostly civilians, the firebombing of Tokyo on March 10th, 1945 should be a more widely-known part of World War II history.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  3/9/2020
  

  ‘We Hated What We Were Doing’: Veterans Recall Firebombing Japan

  American airmen who took part in the 1945 firebombing missions grapple with the particular horror they witnessed being inflicted on those below.

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• 2/16/20
  

  Remembering Soldier's Bravery at Iwo Jima, 75 Years Later

  by Jack H. Lucas

  "I had no way of knowing that in a matter of a few short hours I would make the most important decision of my life and in the lives of three members of my fire team. The choice would be mine: either I could die alone or all of us would die together."

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• SOURCE: NY Times
  11/10/19
  

  Navy Submarine, Missing for 75 Years, Is Found Off Okinawa

  Private explorers found the U.S.S. Grayback beneath 1,400 feet of water after realizing that a mistranslated Japanese war record had pointed searchers in the wrong direction.    

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/23/19
  

  America’s Secret History in East Asia

  by Alexis Dudden

  Japan and South Korea are at odds today because Washington has been playing favorites for decades.

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• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  8/19/19
  

  New Documents Show Japan's Wartime Emperor Showed Remorse Over Nanjing Massacre

  The notes, taken by former Imperial Household Agency chief Michiji Tajima, were released Monday by public broadcaster NHK, which aired a documentary on the subject Saturday.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  8/5/2019
  

  The Exhibit Lauded Freedom of Expression. It Was Silenced.

  Statues of so-called comfort women have long been an irritant to Japanese nationalists who dispute that the women were forced into servitude.

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• 8/6/19
  

  Samantha Smith's Dream of Peace and Nuclear Disarmament

  by William Lambers

  Samantha Smith taught us your voice matters and you can make a difference in ridding the world of nuclear weapons and achieving peace for all. 

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• 8/4/19
  

  “Mr. Straight Arrow,” John Hersey, and the decision to drop the atomic bomb

  by D. M. Giangreco

  What recent histories getsright--and wrong--about Harry S. Truman's decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan. 

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• SOURCE: Reuters
  7/8/19
  

  Japan, South Korea raise stakes in dispute over forced labor. History helps explain the conflict.

  The countries share a bitter history dating to Japan’s colonization of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945, which saw forced use of labor by Japanese companies and the use of “comfort women”, a Japanese euphemism for girls and women, many of them Korean, forced to work in its wartime brothels.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  7/8/2019
  

  Why Japan and South Korea Still Spar Over History

  Japan’s colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula ended more than seven decades ago yet that legacy still roils everyday politics on both sides of the strait.

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• 5/19/19
  

  What Trump Could Learn About Immigration from Teddy Roosevelt

  by Greg Bailey

  The history of the Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907.

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• SOURCE: Time
  4/28/19
  

  Centuries ago, women ruled Japan. What changed?

  Conservative and patriarchal Japan excludes women -- who make up 13 of the 18 members of the royal family -- from taking the throne. But this wasn't always the case.

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• 2/13/19
  

  What a Japanese-American soldier’s thirty-year secret can teach us about race, war, and loyalty

  by Sandra Vea

   Interpreters with the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) during WW2 were credited for shortening the war in the South Pacific by two years. Yet, they had to keep their service secret for 30 years. 

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  11-30-18
  

  'Comfort women': anger as Japan paper alters description of WWII terms

  Change prompts concern that country’s media is trying to rewrite wartime history under rightwing pressure.

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• SOURCE: NYT
  11-29-18
  

  South Korean Court Orders Mitsubishi of Japan to Pay for Forced Wartime Labor

  The top court upheld a lower-court ruling that ordered Mitsubishi to pay each of five women 100 million won to 150 million won, or about $89,000 to $133,000.

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• SOURCE: NYT
  11-21-18
  

  South Korea Signals End to ‘Final’ Deal With Japan Over Wartime Sex Slaves

  The deal has been deeply unpopular among South Koreans, including some of the surviving victims, who say it fell short of official reparations and a declaration of legal responsibility on Japan’s part.