MetaFilter posts tagged with japan and history

Animated Stereoviews of Meiji Japan

BuddhaInABucket — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:40:35 -0800

Animated Stereoviews of Meiji Japan via japansociety on twitter

The digital collection of the Tokyo National Museum

Kattullus — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:08:24 -0800

The digital collection of the Tokyo National Museum is full of wonder. TNM is the oldest museum in Japan and collects archaeological objects and art from Japan as well as other parts of Asia. The collection can be browsed by type or region. Here are some of my favorites: Buddha's life, The name "Korin" given to pupil, Tale of Matsuranomiya, Coquettish type, Tea caddy in shape of bucket with handle, Mirror, design of sea and island, Traditionary identified as Minamoto no Yoritomo, Seated Monju Bosatsu (Manjusri) and attendants, Sword mounting of kazari-tachi type and (my current desktop background) Figures under a tree. This is but a small sampling of all that can be found in the digital collection

Hiroshima: The Lost Photographs

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

Hiroshima: The Lost Photographs

Japan through wonderful vintage photos

madamjujujive — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:30:07 -0800

Vintage 3-D stereoviews of old Japan, Meiji and Taisho era swimsuit girls, working people, geisha, and kids, old Japan salt prints, dozens of T. Enami glass slides, and strange or offbeat images: all part of a vast and superb collection of Japanese photos from 1862 to 1930 by flickr user Okinawa Soba. More on the work of T-Enami, "King of the Stereoview, Master of the Lantern-Slide And Prolific, Anonymous Contributor To the World of Yokohama Album Views"

Japan before Allied bombings

Burhanistan — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:50:15 -0800

Old Photos of Japan - a daily photoblog featuring images of Japan between the 1860s and 1930s.

1930s Japanese Air Raid and Civil Defence Posters

Rumple — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 12:16:08 -0800

The Japanese National Archives have a nice set of late 1930s, pre-World War 2, civil defence posters, created in response to their hostilities with China: General Air Raid Defence; Blackout Control; Fire Protection; and Gas Attack. via Airminded, an excellent blog on "Airpower and British Society 1908-1941, mostly." Each poster has explanation if you click the "comments" button. I found the "jpeg" link, not the "jpeg2000" link worked better, unless you want to load a browser tool. I loved was terrified by Action Radius of Heavy Bombers; Blackout of Automobile; Disposal for dropped incendiaries (interesting they were so sensitive to the danger of fire bombing, in 1937); and the Effectiveness of Gas Masks. High resolution is available for all posters. The rest of the archives gallery is great as well, especially these pedagogical wall posters from elementary schools.

"My humble efforts to assist in the elucidation of the social condition of a distant and comparatively unknown race."

goodnewsfortheinsane — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 11:34:54 -0800

Sketches of Japanese Manners and Customs (1867).

Japanese historical photographs ca. 1910

Rumple — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 14:43:16 -0800

A nice set of photographic glass-plate transparencies depicting life in Japan ca. 1910. These "Yokohama photographs" were sold to foreign tourists between about 1868 and 1912. I found the Crafts and Trades section most interesting.

Japanese Bicycle History Research Club

carter — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 14:08:32 -0800

Japanese Bicycle History Research Club With a nice gallery of photos, illustrations, and ukiyo-e of vintage bicycles in Japan.

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.

Japanese Medical Prints

monju_bosatsu — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 12:55:00 -0800

Japanese Medical Prints. Part of the Clendening History of Medicine Library, at the Kansas University Medical Center, and donated by Dr. Matthew Pickard. The digital collections at the Clendening Library also include Florence Nightingale's letters, old school Chinese public health posters, and images from old medical and natural history texts.

Comfort Women

zarq — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 08:18:00 -0800

On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives' Committee on International Relations adopted a bipartisan resolution to ask the Japanese government to formally apologize for sexually enslaving up to 200,000 "comfort women" in Imperial brothels during its colonial occupation of Asia from 1932 through the end of World War II. Many were tortured and raped, and only about 30% survived WWII. Japan has stated repeatedly that even though the brothels were established by military policy, the imperial government was not directly involved in operating them. Taking responsibility would be an admission that they committed war crimes -- slavery and trafficking in women and children -- and could give victims a legal basis to sue for reparations.

H Res. 759 does not ask Japan to provide reparations, but it does push them to unambiguously acknowledge what happened and educate future generations, (full text) rather than continue the current practice of denying what really happened. Previously on MeFi.

Japanophilia and Japanophobia

madamjujujive — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 06:37:13 -0800

Japan in America: the Turn of the Twentieth Century - an exhibit of ads, cartoons, art and other popculture artifacts from the decades leading up to WWI. (image menu is at the bottom of the page)

Apparently there is an uncanny valley in Japan, too.

monju_bosatsu — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 10:55:11 -0800

The tradition of making Japanese dolls, called ningyo—meaning human figure—goes back as far as 10,000 years to clay figures made during the Jomon period. The more recent rise in popularity, though, is most often traced to Hina Matsuri--Girls' Day, or the Doll Festival, celebrated on March 3--originating during the Edo period. These antique ningyo are highly sought after by collectors, such as the American expert Alan Pate, who has written a number of articles on the subject. The modern Japanese doll culture, however, is anything but traditional. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the ningyo tradition was exported to make toys for the West (previously featured on MeFi), and has culminated in popular Barbie-type dolls such as Superdollfie and others. Contemporary artists have transformed the Japanese doll tradition into something else entirely: Simon Yotsuya, Ryo Yoshida, Koitsukihime, Yoko Ueno, Mario A., Etsuko Miura, and Kai Akemi. A number of these artists were featured in the Dolls of Innocence exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Of course, notable artists outside Japan have worked with dolls before, including Hans Bellmer, who inspired much of the artwork in Innocence, the follow-up to Ghost in the Shell. Explore more: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. [Several links are nsfw.]

Irie Takako: Establishing Oneself and Entering the World

matteo — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 09:57:25 -0800

In the Twilight of Modernity and the Silent Film (.pdf) Irie Takako was the most popular actress in 1930s Japan: film scholar Tanaka Masasumi locates the turning point of Japanese modernity in 1933, the year Kenji Mizoguchi's The Water Magician was made, arguing that Irie's transformation from radiant embodiment of moga(modern girl, the Japanese version of the flapper)-hood to suffering beauty in a kimono (.pdf) epitomized modernism's (modanizumu) defeat by nationalism in 1930's Japan. (via Camera Obscura; more inside)

Aleksandr Sokurov's "The Sun"

matteo — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 09:54:32 -0800

The Emperor's Bunker. "The Japanese, with sadness and irony, stressed that Hirohito couldn't even speak properly. This was partly to do with the fact that he didn't have to speak - people spoke in his name and he was isolated from real life". "The Sun", the third part in Russian director Aleksandr Sokurov's 'Men of Power' tetralogy after the gloom of Moloch (1999), about Hitler and Eva Braun, and the despairing tones of "Taurus" (2001), focused on the wheelchair-bound Lenin in his death throes, "The Sun" seems almost upbeat. This, after all, is a film about reconciliation. More inside.

James Fee's Peleliu Project

matteo — Sun, 21 Aug 2005 12:02:04 -0800

The Peleliu Project. The tiny Micronesian island of Peleliu was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. The U.S. invasion of the Japanese occupied island began in September of 1944, and was expected to last only a matter of days. Casualties on this 5 square mile island reached 20,000 by the end of the two-month struggle. U.S. soldiers were forced to pour aviation fuel into caves and ignite them in order to end the standoff of those who refused to surrender. One determined group of 34 Japanese soldiers remained in hiding until they were discovered in April of 1947.
Pharmacist Mate 3rd Class Russell Fee returned from Peleliu with a fierce, uncompromising vision of America which would have a profound impact on the life and work of his son. Fifty-three years later, armed with his father's snapshots and diary which he had just uncovered, James Fee went to Peleliu to see with his own eyes the place where his father's vision had taken shape. The result of his five year quest is The Peleliu Project. more inside

Tokyo Rose

gottabefunky — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 10:07:29 -0800

"Now you fellows have lost all your ships. Now you really are orphans of the Pacific. How do you think you will ever get home?" Tokyo Rose was the name given to any female propaganda broadcaster for the Japanese during WWII’s battle for the Pacific, but it has stuck most tightly to Iva Toguri D'Aquino, an American who studied zoology at Berkeley and unwisely went to visit a relative in Japan in 1941 without a passport.

Her sultry voice was heard across the Pacific during her radio show “The Zero Hour,” which earned her about $7 per month. After the war, "Orphan Annie" returned to the U.S., where she was tried for treason in the most expensive trial in history. Her story has been made into movies and documentaries, and as of 2003 she was running a store in Chicago. You can listen to her broadcasts online and apparently even email her.

Anti-Japan protests in China

threehundredandsixty — Sat, 16 Apr 2005 17:04:54 -0800

Reports of recent Anti-Japanese demonstrations in China lack any details about the content in the disputed history text books. Is it related to the Nanjing Massacre, which Iris Chang wrote about in her much contested book "The Rape of Nanking"? The Chinese government is certainly not acting as a shining example of upholding human rights by any means, but does that deprive its people from the right to have part of their history at least adequately remembered ? And is the Chinese Government using this collective wound to further its own national interests such as keeping Japan from joining the UNSC?

Robot Friend Ancient Music Fish

dfowler — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 07:57:16 -0800

With My Special Partner, I can drink my way back to the 7th Millenium BCE for ancient music, and the fish’ll tell me how to get home .

Japan's Global Claim to Asia and the World of Islam: Transnational Nationalism and World Power, 1900–1945

y2karl — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 13:11:14 -0800

Japan's Global Claim to Asia and the World of Islam: Transnational Nationalism and World Power, 1900-1945 During the years 1900-1945, the question that motivated Muslims and some Japanese was whether Japan could be the "Savior of Islam" against Western imperialism and colonialism if this meant collaboration with Japanese imperialism. Even during the 1930s, when there was little hope left for prospects of democracy and liberalism in Japan (for that matter in Europe as well), the vision of a "Muslim Japan" was so compelling to many Muslims in Asia and beyond, even among black Muslims of Harlem, as a means for emancipation from Western hegemony/colonial reality that it justified cooperation with Japanese intelligence overseas. Okawa Shumei, the major intellectual figure of Pan-Asianism, the "mastermind of Japanese fascism" in the Tokyo trials, who justified Japan's mission to liberate Asia from Western colonialism by war if necessary, saw Islam as the means. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the relationship transformed into a major Japanese military strategy as the Japanese government began to implement its Islamic policy by mobilizing Muslim forces against the United Kingdom, Holland, China and Russia in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Alternately, The Fukuwaza Doctrine

Iraq, Manchuria, Askari Street--It's The History News Network!

y2karl — Fri, 11 Jun 2004 21:47:09 -0800

From Nanjing 1937 to Fallujah 2004; Is the U.S. Repeating the Mistakes of Japan in the 1930s?; Attempting Analogy: Japanese Manchuria and Occupied Iraq and Manchuria and Iraq, 1932 and 2004: you can kiss that Vietnam analogy good bye--when historians talk history, they range farther afield. I ♥ the History News Network! Here is food for thought at an all night, all you can eat smorgasbord--those who teach history are condemned to discuss it and we're all the better for it.

For example, Hala Fattah's Askari Street is my current favorite Iraqi weblog. She gives us the history of the Arab horse, the Pachachi family, the Shammar tribe and Kirkuk, and its place in Iraqi History and she has barely begun to write.
HNN: oh, it's an embarrassment of riches and a fount of endless fascination.

Hanafuda and Go-Stop

hama7 — Sun, 02 May 2004 08:36:43 -0800

Hanafuda, also known as Go-Stop. [more]

Netsuke

nthdegx — Sat, 17 Apr 2004 06:22:59 -0800

Netsuke: ornate artifacts of the Edo period. Via neonepiphany.

Projects related to Medieval Japan

hama7 — Wed, 14 Apr 2004 17:06:05 -0800

Sengoku Daimyo: Projects related to medieval Japan.