MetaFilter posts tagged with hiroshima and japan

The unluckiest man alive

clevershark — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:12:31 -0800

Bad luck: some people seem to treat the subject rather lightly and consider themselves the unluckiest person ever if they lose a long game of Pokemon, or because of some rather benign school occurrences. Sometimes people fall victim to such unlikely and improbable events that they may be tempted to declare themselves cursed. But it would be hard to beat the hard-luck of a Japanese man named Tsutomu Yamaguchi. On August 6th, 1945, he was in Hiroshima on a business trip when the first A-bomb dropped on Japan exploded. He suffered some burns, but was considered well enough that he could leave Hiroshima the next day and go home. To Nagasaki.

Hiroshima: The Lost Photographs

knave — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:07:31 -0800

Hiroshima: The Lost Photographs

The "Near Future Technopop Unit"

Unicorn on the cob — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:03:25 -0800

Perfume, a three-girl Japanese technopop sensation formed in 2001 now consisting of Nocchi, Kashikuya and A~chan, is about to release their ninth single, "Dream Fighter". Perfume's July 2008 single "Love the World" was the first technopop song ever to debut at #1 on the Oricon sales chart. The previous highest debut for techno was Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Kimi ni, Munekyun" 25 years ago in 1983. (original article citing #1 record translated via Google translator) You may know them for their Japanese recycling campaign ads or annoyingly catchy single version of the song (complete with dance routine), "Polyrhythm".

Your hobbies are not nearly obscure enough

odasaku — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 23:10:23 -0800

Traffic signals! Yes, an entire page devoted to the myriad varieties of Japanese L E D traffic signal. They even have a mapping feature and a traffic signal lingo dictionary. I hereby dare ANYBODY to find a cooler hobby than this.

Photos from Hiroshima

jonson — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 18:41:52 -0800

Photos from Hiroshima in August of 1945. Long supressed by the occupying U.S. forces, a highly unsettling (and decidedly NSFW) collection of photos from the days immediately after August 6th. Via.

LMG — Tue, 06 Aug 2002 06:31:10 -0800

One Hell of a Big Bang -- Studs Turkel meets Paul Tibbets the pilot of the Enola Gay. It's a great, though-provoking and disturbing interview to read on Hiroshima Day.