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Japan Times
Features
Aug 14, 2005

Author's 'sense of mission' shines on through the flames

At age 13, in total despair after losing her parents and two sisters, Toshiko Takagi tried to kill herself. But now, 60 years later, she stresses she never consciously tried to commit suicide.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 14, 2005

In the face of Samurai spirit

BLOSSOMS IN THE WIND: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze, by M.G. Sheftall. NAL Caliber, 2005, 480 pp., $24.95 (cloth). For American sailors who served in the Pacific theater during the final two years of World War II, nothing was more terrifying than a kamikaze attack. Grainy black-and-white footage of...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 14, 2005

Chiune Sugihara: His conscience gleams out of the darkness

Exactly 60 years ago, during the evening of Aug. 14, 1945, Emperor Hirohito recorded the speech of surrender to be broadcast to the Japanese nation the next day at noon.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 14, 2005

Serving the best slice of modern Japanese literature

THE COLUMBIA ANTHOLOGY OF MODERN JAPANESE LITERATURE, Volume I: From Restoration to Occupation, 1868-1945, edited by J. Thomas Rimer and Van C. Gessel, with poetry selections by Amy Vladeck Heinrich and Leith Morton, introduction by J. Thomas Rimer. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005, 864 pp.,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 14, 2005

He hops onto a shuttle, jumps off to a media shuffle

Last Tuesday's landing of the Space Shuttle Discovery in the deserts of California capped a tense two weeks in which the safety of the vehicle and the seven astronauts it contained was never 100 percent assured. The loss of foam insulation during liftoff was eerily reminiscent of the last shuttle mission...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 14, 2005

Just a slab of cold peace after 60 years

MONTEREY, Calif. — Sunday marks the 60th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War. In Asia, it is an especially critical milestone as China, South Korea and many Southeast Asian countries recall their struggle against the Japanese invasions, valuing peace all the more today. Time is supposed to heal...
Japan Times
Features
Aug 14, 2005

Caught in the middle: an 'enemy' in service of the Emperor

Life in Japan during the war years was not easy for foreign-born persons of Japanese parentage, but relatively speaking it would seem that I had a fairly easy time.
Japan Times
Features
Aug 14, 2005

Spared suicide pilot fights in cause of peace

Every Sunday evening finds Masamichi Shida among a group of antiwar protesters outside the train station in Kamakura, south of Tokyo, singing songs opposing Japan's participation in the U.S.-led campaign in Iraq.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 14, 2005

Art of survival born from desperation, fear and hope

SURVIVING THE SWORD: Prisoners of the Japanese 1942-45, by Brian MacArthur. London: Time Warner Books, 2005, 512 pp., £20 (cloth). Of the 132,142 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) taken by Japan in World War II, 27 percent died compared to 4 percent of Germany's. The brutal treatment of the POWs is well...
Features
Aug 14, 2005

Looking back on brainwashing

Koya Azumi leans over the living-room table at his home outside Tokyo on a warm afternoon, stirring coffee. Birds twitter outside, but otherwise there is only silence. It is a tableau of serenity, of peace.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Aug 13, 2005

Giants look to Hoshino

Former Hanshin Tigers manager Senichi Hoshino is being considered as the top candidate to take the helm as the next skipper of the struggling Yomiuri Giants, team officials said Thursday.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Aug 13, 2005

Nioka homers to give Giants first win in three

Tomohiro Nioka homered off Hanshin closer Tomoyuki Kubota in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Yomiuri Giants their first win in three games with a 5-4 "sayonara" victory over the Central League-leading Tigers on Friday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 13, 2005

Toward a two-party system

Monday's dissolution of the Lower House for a snap election on Sept. 11 has focused attention on the possibility that the coming election will usher in a viable two-party system. Such a possibility cannot be ruled out. A divisive development within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party could help the Democratic...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2005

Outbound Bon travelers reach peak

The annual midsummer rush for the Bon holidays peaked Friday as airports, railway stations and roads grew crowded with summer holidaymakers.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2005

Nostalgia wave sees '60s 'anime' hits going DVD

A string of animations aired during Japan's miraculous economic boom of the 1960s is gradually regaining popularity with people in their 40s to 50s.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2005

JAL chief joins kin in marking '85 crash

UENO, Gunma Pref. -- Kin marked the 20th year Friday since 520 of their loved-ones died when a Japan Airlines jumbo jet crashed on a mountain in Gunma Prefecture -- the worst single-air craft accident in aviation history.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2005

MTFG-UFJ merger officially put off till Jan. 1

Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. and UFJ Holdings Inc. formally announced Friday the postponement of the planned integration of their core banking units until Jan. 1, three months after their original schedule.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2005

Economy grew 0.3% in April-June quarter

The nation's economy grew by a less-than-expected 0.3 percent in the April-June quarter, the government said Friday, but economists said better business and consumer spending, along with strong exports, suggest Japan's recovery this time may last.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2005

JALways jet blows engine, returns

FUKUOKA (Kyodo ) A JALways jetliner bound for Honolulu returned to Fukuoka airport Friday night about 30 minutes after takeoff after it blew out its port engine, airport authorities said.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2005

Ono regrets SDF's failure to rescue JAL crash victims

...
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2005

Hashimoto likely to retire from Diet

Former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto is expected to retire from the Diet without running in the Sept. 11 House of Representatives election, members of the Liberal Democratic Party said Friday.
BUSINESS
Aug 13, 2005

Cabinet approves 15% retaliatory levy on U.S. steel

The government said Friday it will slap a 15 percent retaliatory levy on U.S. ball bearing and other steel products from Sept. 1 to counter a U.S. antidumping law that violates global trade rules.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2005

LDP rebels mulling new party

Liberal Democratic Party rebels who voted against the government's postal privatization bills in the House of Representatives are still considering forming a new party ahead of the Sept. 11 election, a key dissenter said Friday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 13, 2005

Seibu eyes equity issue for holding firm

The Seibu Railway Co. group is considering raising 160 billion yen in capital for a holding company that could be created in February to own Seibu Railway and a hotel and resort company, sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2005

Koizumi may skip Yasukuni Aug. 15

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi indicated Friday he does not plan to visit Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on or around Aug. 15, the date of Japan's World War II surrender.
Japan Times
JAPAN / 60 YEARS,AND ONWARD
Aug 13, 2005

Carmakers owe success to warplanes

The Japanese automobile industry has become a symbol of the nation's stellar postwar growth, but few may be aware that its rise owes much to the engineers who helped develop military aircraft during the war.

Longform

A store clerk tries to cool things down in front of their shop by spraying a hose.
Is extreme weather changing the way Japan shops?