Japan news, events & human interest

[mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman]

HAHAHAHAHAHA ^^^^^ THAT'S WHAT THEY GET FOR TEASING!

[tangerinesun]

The second week of March is a rough one
for memories, over the last 70-plus years. 



March 10th was the anniversary of the Great Tokyo Air Raid of 1945, a
saturation firebombing of a civilian population center strategically akin to
the incendiary attack on Dresden and the air campaign against London
among other British cities by Nazi Germany.


Tokyo firebombing recalled 73 years on
2018 MAR 10 by Staff for The Japan Times in National / Kyodo 
www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/03/10/national/tokyo-firebombing-recalled-73-years/ 

Tokyo on Saturday marked the 73rd anniversary of the massive U.S. firebombing
that killed over 80,000 people during the war, with a ceremony that saw some
600 people, including families of the victims, gather to commemorate those lost…


Tokyo was raided over 100 times, wiping out some 60% of its total area,
according to the JT article. A large proportion of the buildings were of
wood construction, so they went up like a boy-scout jamboree in hell
and their occupants went with them.

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That brings us to 3/11, now the 7th anniversary of the Great Tohoku Earthquake
and Tsunami. Although it's no longer news, the region most affected by the
tidal wave and resulting nuclear disaster is still struggling.

A separate article reported that areas abandoned as unfit for farming or
habitation are home to a growing population of native wild boar that are
dangerous, destructive, hard to control, even presumed radioactive
to some degree.

Great opportunity for a filmmaker there.


Seeking solace in Tohoku’s poets of old
2018 MAR 10 by ROGER PULVERS for The Japan Times / Books 
www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2018/03/10/books/seeking-solace-tohokus-poets-old/ 

What is it that gives the people of this region in northeastern Japan heart
and steels their mettle to go on?

It wasn’t long after the earthquake that Miyazawa’s iconic poem,
“Strong in the Rain,” was being read aloud and incanted under
the breath throughout Tohoku…



Ken Watanabe strong in the rain w/ English subtitles
渡邊謙 不怕風雨 中文字幕
2011 MAR 18 by opal li (01:51)

Video sourced from : kizuna311.com/


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Poems translated by Roger Pulvers


‘Words’
by Takuboku Ishikawa (1886-1912)

My daughter is picking up words like
“Workers” and “revolution”
At the tender age of 5.


‘Whatever Anyone Says’
by Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933)

Whatever anyone says
I am the young wild olive tree
Dripping radiant dew
Cold droplets
Transparent rain
From my every branch.


Neither poet lived long enough to see what became of
a militarized Japan's imperial ambitions, 1933–45.