The Kempeitai studies Anthropology
Our friends at Savage Minds often post on issues related to anthropologists at war. Today I came across an example of an anthropologist at war in a 1942 diary b...
Author: K. M. Lawson
Nisei and the POWs
I just want to take a moment to share a photo that I think captures an interesting and perhaps a bit of an awkward moment. The photo is taken from a 1946 report...
The Hicswa Court-martial: a Double Murder in Nara, 1945
The US occupation of Japan after World War II was not, relatively speaking, a violent one and though the behavior of occupation troops in Japan did lead to many...
The North Flank Guard: Everyday Life in North Korea
This is the last of three postings in this series. Read the first posting here for an explanation of the idea of the “North flank guard” and the sec...
The North Flank Guard: A Military Exercise Escalated into Artillery Exchange
This is the second of a three part series. Read the first posting here. On November 28, a South Korean artilleryman mistakenly fired a single 155mm shell north ...
The North Flank Guard
In politics, a direct attack is not always the most effective. One way to proceed is to target someone or something that is seen to represent a more extreme, a ...
License to Hunt Japanese
John Dower’s book War Without Mercy does a great job at talking about, and showing images of the many ways that race played a role in the propaganda and d...
Shipping Designators for Japanese Cities
There are two creative processes that I find particular mysterious. Coming up with the names for musical bands…and shipping designators. Here for example,...
The Red Flag Song
On May 1, 1946 Oscar Olander, a former commissioner of the Michigan State police, entered Tokyo early on the morning of “Food May Day” as part of hi...
Bruce Willis and Harvard Yenching
I dropped by Harvard-Yenching library this afternoon to pick up some books requested from the depository and look up a few more from my todo list. I noted down ...
Candy and School Lunches
In the New York Times yesterday there was an interesting article entitled, “Is Candy Evil or Just Misunderstood?” In particular it discussed the rel...
Sweaty Traitors – Character Simplifications That Just Weren't Meant to Be
I had an old instructor of Chinese language many years ago who took every opportunity to pick fun at the evil Reds on the mainland. I think he fled China in 194...
An Interpreter’s Tale
I have been collecting notes for a study of the treason of interpreters. This may not make it into my dissertation, but I find the topic fascinating. In the his...
The Most Effective Kind of Education
While there are many historical problems worthy of exploring in the study of history, I personably believe that one of the most important is an attempt to under...