Japan

• 
• 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.

• 
• 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.

• 
• 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. 

• 
• 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. 

• 
• 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.

• 
• 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.

• 
• 5/19/19
  

  What Trump Could Learn About Immigration from Teddy Roosevelt

  by Greg Bailey

  The history of the Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907.

• 
• 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.

• 
• 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. 

• 
• 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.

• 
• 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.

• 
• 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.

• 
• 11/20/18
  

  Trump Has Achieved the Nearly Impossible: He's Brought China and Japan Together

  by Tom Clifford

  How he did it.

• 
• SOURCE: CNN
  10-4-18
  

  San Francisco Japanese sister-city cuts its ties over comfort women statue

  The mayor of Osaka objects to the statue, which memorializes the Korean women exploited by Japanese soldiers in the thirties and forties.

• 
• SOURCE: NYT
  8/25/18
  

  Aide’s Diary Suggests Hirohito Agonized Over His War Responsibility

  In old age Hirohito blamed himself for the war.

• 
• 8/5/18
  

  What I Found When I Visited Japan’s Hiroshima Memorial

  by Fred Pearce

  “It seemed to me that Japan could contemplate the bombing with stoicism and dignity. The defeat, however, was too much.”

• 
• SOURCE: NYT
  5-15-18
  

  A Chinese Town’s Deep Bonds With Japan Bring Wealth and Hatred

  Fangzheng has close ties to Japan going back to the days of Japanese imperial control in this part of China. Now it's a target of nationalist ire.

• 
• SOURCE: NHK World
  5-8-18
  

  Scrolls found inside statue of Buddha in Nara

  Officials from the Nara National Museum conducted a scientific probe of the 73-centimeter-high piece using a CT scanner. They discovered a hollow space stretching from top to bottom.

• 
• SOURCE: NYT
  1-12-18
  

  Japan Balks at Calls for New Apology to South Korea Over ‘Comfort Women’

  On matters of history, Japan and South Korea can never seem to agree to disagree.

• 
• SOURCE: The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus
  12-22-17
  

  2 years after it became a World Heritage Site a Japanese WW2 slave labor camp has become a tourist destination

  But the Japaneze government is actively denying the history of Korean mistreatment there.