Discoveries from around the archipelago
My recent trip to Okinawa and the importance of 2015 as the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II made me want to highlight this relatively unknown holiday on the Japanese calendar. It's not an uplifting holiday, like many of the other celebrations I have mentioned (such as New Year's or Girls' Day)... Continue Reading →
When I was looking online for a picture of Takako and the Great Typhoon the other month, I stumbled across an ad for another book relating to Okinawa - Above the East China Sea by Sarah Bird. As there really aren't many mainstream works of fiction that focus on the Ryukyu Islands, I immediately jumped at... Continue Reading →
In the latter years of World War II, as Japan was pressed back from her Pacific conquests, 1036 army pilots sortied from air bases in the southern part of Japan. They would never return. Their memories live on however, at the Chiran Peace Memorial Museum for kamikaze pilots (known in Japanese as tokko), an incredibly... Continue Reading →
The Hiroshima Peace Museum is a worthwhile visit in its own right but for me, the most moving moment of my visit there a few years ago was the chance to listen to a hibakusha tell his story. Hibakusha is the Japanese word for those who survived the atomic bombing of either Hiroshima or Nagasaki... Continue Reading →
