This series is about the Japanese home front in and around Sasebo, Japan, during World War II. It is not a condemnation or critique of actions taken by either side during the war but rather a look at the civilian…
Genpei – Rise of the Shoguns
The court is in turmoil. The child Emperor has died, leaving no heirs. The two most powerful noble families each have their favorite successor. The head of one family serves has served as chancellor for the last twenty years after…
Nagoya Castle: History Lost and Regained
This week, in between Mr. Krigbaum’s articles on WWII in The Philippines, I will go back to talking about castles here in Japan. Nagoya Castle is a grand reconstructed castle a couple of hours south of Tokyo by shinkansen with…
Farewells from Chiran
What drives men to willingly drive an aircraft into a ship and what goes through the mind of a person scheduled for death and seemingly embraces the opportunity? There are stories from pilots of many nations flying damaged aircraft and…
Himeji – Japan’s Premier Castle
If you have ever spent any time reading about Japan, or even just looked at a tourism guide about the country, you have likely seen the beautiful bright white Japanese castle that often adorns Japan’s promotional literature. That…
Hikone Castle – One of Japan’s Finest Castles
If you’ve ever traveled around Japan you know that they love their castles. Almost every old castle town has either rebuilt their castles, preserved the grounds as a park, or, in rare cases, preserved their castle through the centuries. …
Kawasaki’s Premier Folk Museum – Nihon Minkaen
A couple months ago I wrote about the number of folk museums in Japan and old buildings that the Japanese have preserved from their history. The best of these folk museums that I have found so far is a…
Atlantikwall
Today’s video takes us to a forbidding section of the Atlantic Wall, Nazi Germany’s coastal defense scheme that saw artillery batteries, bunkers and other defensive fixtures dot the seaside from Norway to France to keep out any potential liberating forces.…
A Recent History of Japanese Aviation: The Hamamatsu JASDF Museum
Some time ago, shortly after we started this blog, I wrote about the underwhelming castle in Hamamatsu. As I mentioned then, there is a lot more to see in Hamamatsu, and things that are more worth seeing. One of those…
Tsumago and the Nakasendo Road: Day 2
By: Dave Hansche If you haven’t read day one yet, you can find it here: http://www.wayfarerdaves.com/?p=615 When we left off, my co-blogging friend and I had just finished a rainy hike into Tsumago-juku, an old post town on the…