MetaFilter posts tagged with okinawa

Personal photos from the Pacific (WWII)

zzazazz — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:05:47 -0800

According to the photographer's daughter, "All photos in this collection were taken by then Lt. and later Capt. George S. White, my Father, while he was serving in the Pacific as a pilot. They are generally between 1945 and 1948 from what is documented." My favorites? The barmaid or postwar Tokyo or wrecked planes and airplane graveyards.

"It was so peaceful a death, that I felt its reproduction would not be in bad taste. But there probably would be another school of thought on this."

Smart Dalek — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 08:01:42 -0800

Before a hill, a figure rests, his hands folded. His face retains a unsettling demeanor of peace, or contemplation. Whatever thoughts come to his mind at this point, we shall never know, for he shall never awake from his slumber. [via] On Sunday, February 3rd, 2008, the Associated Press published the photo of slain journalist Ernie Pyle. Among those who recalled the incident, Richard Strasser was "The Army photographer who crawled forward under fire to make this picture later said it was withheld by military officials." Now in his eighties, he regrets not having sent a copy of the image to Pyle's widow.

Haisai Ojisan

billtron — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 14:28:46 -0800

Shoukichi Kina, peace activist, club owner, environmentalist, sailor, critic of the US presence in Okinawa, proponent of Okinawan independence, and, since 2004, member of the Japanese House of Councillors has been playing his highly influential hybrid of traditional Okinawan min'yo, reggae, and other island music styles since he formed the band Champloose in 1968. His most famous song, "Haisai Ojisan", has been covered by such artists as John French, Fred Frith, Henry Kaiser, and Richard Thompson. Due to his collaboration with world-music superstar Ry Cooder, Kina is largely responsible for introducing Okinawan pop music to the global stage. Clearly identified by the sound of the sanshin, Okinawan folk tunes and pop songs by Kina and such later groups as Begin, The Boom, and Rimi Natsukawa and have been performed by people from Japan, Argentina, Argentina, Peru, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Brazil, Guatemala, Germany, Mexico, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Canada, and New York.

The dolphin with the artificial fin

jeffmshaw — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 03:54:42 -0800

An artificial fin has given a bottlenose dolphin a new lease on life. Fuji, a dolphin at Okinawa's Churaumi Aquarium, lost 75 percent of her flukes to an unknown disease. But a prosthetic fin developed by Bridgestone Corporation engineers has enabled Fuji to swim again in the aquarium's dolphin lagoon. Watch the BBC video report here. Read the aquarium's notes on the project and see photos of Fuji both during and after the disease's onset here.

The Okinawa digital archive

jeffmshaw — Tue, 23 Nov 2004 12:53:03 -0800

The Okinawa digital archive is a collection of images, video and narrative about the rich culture, history and ecology of the Ryukyu Islands. There's so much more to karate's birthplace than the famous, landscape-dominating military bases -- from music and dance to castles to a language and identity distinct from mainland Japan. Be sure to check out the picture gallery, searchable and sorted by region. [MI]

accoutrements

the fire you left me — Mon, 29 Mar 2004 19:03:22 -0800

The Great Citizens Campaign to Lose Three Kilograms. Okinawans have closely adopted the U.S. lifestyle of cars, suburban malls and fast food, and have become Japan's fattest people ?

lagado — Wed, 01 Nov 2000 18:55:26 -0800

The Ancient Underwater Pyramids of Japan. "A STRUCTURE thought to be the world's oldest building, nearly twice the age of the great pyramids of Egypt, has been discovered. The rectangular stone ziggurat under the sea off the coast of Japan could be the first evidence of a previously unknown Stone Age civilisation, say archeologists. The monument is 600ft wide and 90ft high and has been dated to at least 8000BC. The oldest pyramid in Egypt, the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, was constructed more than 5,000 years later."