Anyone who becomes the oldest person in the world has a tale to tell. But Nabi Tajima had an even more unique perspective on history: She was the last surviving person born during the 19th century. Now,reports the Associated Press, Tajima has died at age 117. Born on August 4, ...read more
When Japanese bombers appeared in the skies over Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941, the U.S. military was completely unprepared for the devastating surprise attack, which dramatically altered the course of World War II, especially in the Pacific theater. But there ...read more
Though an American and a Japanese museum that tell the story of the atomic bomb agree on the horrors of nuclear war, they can’t agree on whether to call for the abolition of the weapons that cause it. As a result, the Los Alamos Historical Museum—located in the New Mexico city ...read more
The Russo-Japanese War was a military conflict fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan from 1904 to 1905. Much of the fighting took place in what is now northeastern China. The Russo-Japanese War was also a naval conflict, with ships exchanging fire in the ...read more
During the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, outraged South Koreans demanded an apology from NBC after a commentatorasserted that Korea’s transformation into a global powerhouse was due to the “cultural, technological and economic example” of Japan. For many South Koreans, analyst ...read more
Lee Ok-seon was running an errand for her parents when it happened: a group of uniformed men burst out of a car, attacked her and dragged her into the vehicle. As they drove away, she had no idea that she would never see her parents again.She was 14 years old.That fateful ...read more
Tiananmen Square is a public plaza in central Beijing, the capital of China. It’s said to be the largest urban public space in the world. Although the site has social and historical significance within China, it’s perhaps best known worldwide as the site of the Tiananmen Square ...read more
Amazing discoveries came to light nearly every single month in 2017. Take a chronological journey back through 15 of the year’s most intriguing historical events, from archaeological finds and fascinating DNA evidence to newly uncovered documents that change our understanding of ...read more
Bitcoins, the first international digital currency, were kind of a joke when they debuted in 2009. But just eight years later, they’ve grown so lucrative that historian Niall Ferguson is mad at himself for not buying them sooner.In the Boston Globe, Ferguson writes that the value ...read more
In passing legislation to allow Emperor Akihito to leave his throne, Japan’s parliament acted in response to the emperor’s own wishes. Last August, Akihito made a rare televised address to the nation, saying his health problems and advancing age would make it hard for him to ...read more
1. Japan is the oldest continuous monarchy in the world.Though it’s a liberal democracy, Japan is also the oldest continuous monarchy in the world. According to widely accepted (though somewhat legendary) genealogy, Akihito’s family has ruled for some 2,700 years. Though we know ...read more
Often called “hara-kiri” in the West, “seppuku” is a form of ritual suicide that originated with Japan’s ancient samurai warrior class. The grisly act typically involved stabbing oneself in the belly with a short sword, slicing open the stomach and then turning the blade upwards ...read more
Tsutomu Yamaguchi was preparing to leave Hiroshima when the atomic bomb fell. The 29-year-old naval engineer was on a three-month-long business trip for his employer, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and August 6, 1945, was supposed to be his last day in the city. He and his ...read more
For Reverend Archie Mitchell, the spring of 1945 was a season of change. Not only were the minister and his wife, Elsie, expecting their first child, but he had also accepted a new post as pastor of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in the sleepy logging town of Bly, ...read more
Launched in 1942 alongside its sister ship, the Yamato, the Musashi became the flagship of the main fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy the following year. The two ships were among the largest and most powerful ever built, measuring 862 feet (263 meters) long and weighing in at ...read more
1. The Star-Spangled BannerThe story behind America’s anthem dates back to the War of 1812’s Battle of Baltimore. In September 1814, American attorney Francis Scott Key sailed out to the British fleet in the Chesapeake Bay to negotiate the release of an imprisoned friend. ...read more
1. Tokyo began life as a village known as Edo. The city that would become one of the world’s largest metropolises started out as a small fishing village, first settled around 3,000 B.C. Known as Edo, or “estuary” it was first fortified in the 12th century and became home to Edo ...read more
Until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, most American servicemen had never seen a plane like the “Zero,” so named not because of the prominent Rising Sun emblem painted on the side but for the manufacturer’s type designation: Mitsubishi 6M2 Type 0 Model 21. Those servicemen ...read more
When globetrotter and travel writer Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore returned home to Washington, D.C., from a trip to Japan in 1885, she was smitten. Everything about the mysterious land in the Far East had enchanted the young woman, but the country’s flowering cherry trees had cast a ...read more
In Tokyo, Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, representing the U.S. government, signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade and permitting the establishment of a U.S. consulate in Japan.In July 1853, ...read more
During Japan’s Edo period, a series of military dictators called shoguns controlled the country, served by feudal lords known as daimyo and the samurai warriors who protected them. In 1868, after more than 260 years in existence, this highly stratified system collapsed and ...read more
On this day in 1945, at 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world’s first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 ...read more
On this day in 1945, the Soviet Union officially declares war on Japan, pouring more than 1 million Soviet soldiers into Japanese-occupied Manchuria, northeastern China, to take on the 700,000-strong Japanese army.The dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima by the Americans did not ...read more
In Tokyo, Japan, the International Military Tribunals for the Far East begins hearing the case against 28 Japanese military and government officials accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II.On November 4, 1948, the trial ended with 25 of 28 ...read more