Tag: Japan

Dear Leader Dreams of Sushi: What life was like serving Kim Jong-il and his heir

First posted June 05, 2013 By Adam Johnson. Photography by Jungyeon Roh North Korea is a mythically strange land, an Absurdistan, where almost nothing is known about the people or, more important, their missile-launching leaders. There is, however, one man—a humble sushi chef from Japan—who infiltrated the inner sanctum, becoming the Dear Leader’s cook, confidant,… Read More Dear Leader Dreams of Sushi: What life was like serving Kim Jong-il and his heir

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Hamaya Hiroshi (1915-1999); visual chronicler of 20th century Japan

Adam Tooze Born and raised in Tokyo, Hiroshi Hamaya is one of the most eminent Japanese documentary photographers of the 20th century. Working as an aeronautical photographer and a freelance contributor to magazines during the 1930s, Hamaya began his career documenting his hometown from the sky and the streets. An assignment in 1939 gave Hamaya the… Read More Hamaya Hiroshi (1915-1999); visual chronicler of 20th century Japan

Dilip

Brian Victoria: The Zen of Hitler Jugend

First posted February 11, 2016 NB: The paragraphs on ‘national religion’ (highlighted in red) in the first-person account below, are particularly significant for the argument that fascism is a form of right-wing atheism – especially given the contemporary emergence of the Nation as a substitute for God: DS The Tripartite Pact linking Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and… Read More Brian Victoria: The Zen of Hitler Jugend

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Kojin Karatani’s theorising on modes of exchange and the ring of Capital-Nation-State

A short overview of Kojin Karatani’s Marxist influenced focus on modes of exchange as revealing the Borromean ring of Capital-Nation-State, and the import of this ring for religion. By Martin Shuster Kojin Karatani is one of the most interesting Marxist theorists of the last century. I put his work, as a form of “non-traditional” Marxism, in the… Read More Kojin Karatani’s theorising on modes of exchange and the ring of Capital-Nation-State

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Unit 731 Museum Harbin, China: the Japanese Army site for ‘medical experimentation’ on prisoners of war

First posted May 04, 2020 Unit 731 Museum: UNIT 731 was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development wing of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and World War II. Commanded by General Shiro Ishii, an officer in the Kwantung Army, the exact number… Read More Unit 731 Museum Harbin, China: the Japanese Army site for ‘medical experimentation’ on prisoners of war

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Settler colonialism

Displacing and destroying peoples by colonisation is not just a historical Western evil but a global and contemporary one Lachlan McNamee In 1931, Japan invaded northeast China and established a client state called Manchukuo (Manchuria). To secure control over Manchuria, over the next 14 years, the Japanese government lured 270,000 settlers there by offering free… Read More Settler colonialism

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Were the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings “nuclear tests”? The U.S. government said so

By NORMAN SOLOMON In 1980, when I asked the press office at the U.S. Department of Energy to send me a listing of nuclear bomb test explosions, the agency mailed me an official booklet with the title “Announced United States Nuclear Tests, July 1945 Through December 1979.” As you’d expect, the Trinity test in New Mexico… Read More Were the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings “nuclear tests”? The U.S. government said so

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On 78th anniversary of atomic bomb, Hiroshima mayor says nuclear deterrence ‘folly’

Japan has marked the 78th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima where the mayor urged the abolition of nuclear weapons and called the G7 leaders’ notion of nuclear deterrence a “folly”. On Sunday a peace bell tolled at 8.15am, the time the bomb was dropped. About 50,000 participants in the outdoor memorial ceremony… Read More On 78th anniversary of atomic bomb, Hiroshima mayor says nuclear deterrence ‘folly’

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