Typical interior scene in a Manzanar barrack apartment. Note the cloth partition separating one apartment from another, lending a small amount of privacy 30 June 1942
Manzanar is most widely known as the site of one of ten camps where over 110,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II. Located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada in California's Owens Valley between the towns of Lone Pine to the south and Independence to the north, it is approximately 230 miles (370 km) northeast of Los Angeles. Manzanar (which means "apple orchard" in Spanish) was identified by the United StatesNational Park Service as the best-preserved of the former camp sites, and was designated the Manzanar National Historic Site. Long before the first prisoners arrived in March 1942, Manzanar was home to Native Americans, who mostly lived in villages near several creeks in the area. Ranchers and miners formally established the town of Manzanar in 1910, but abandoned the town by 1929 after the City of Los Angeles purchased the water rights to virtually the entire area. As different as these groups might seem, they are tied together by the common thread of forced relocation. Since the last prisoners left in 1945, former prisoners and others have worked to protect Manzanar and to establish it as a National Historic Site that preserves and interprets the site for current and future generations. The primary focus is the Japanese American Internment era, as specified in the legislation that created the Manzanar National Historic Site. The site also interprets the town of Manzanar, the ranch days, the settlement by the Owens Valley Paiute, and the role that water played in shaping the history of the Owens Valley. (Full article...)
Several inscriptions on the series of torii, the defining feature of Fushimi Inari-taisha, a Shintoshrine dedicated to the spirit Inari in Kyoto, Japan. The thousands of vermilion gates are all donations from individuals, families or companies.
The siege of Osaka was a series of battles undertaken by the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate against the Toyotomi clan, and ending in the clan's dissolution. Divided into two stages (the winter campaign and the summer campaign), and lasting from 1614 to 1615, the siege put an end to the last major armed opposition to the shogunate's establishment. This eight-metre-long (26 ft) painting, titled The Summer Battle of Osaka Castle and executed on a Japanese folding screen, illustrates Osaka Castle under siege, and was commissioned by the daimyoKuroda Nagamasa, who took a team of painters with him to the battlefield to record the event. The painting depicts 5071 people and 21 generals, and is held in the collection of Osaka Castle.
The Japanese government-issued dollar was a form of currency issued between 1942 and 1945 for use within the territories of Singapore, Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak and Brunei, under occupation by Imperial Japan during World War II. The currency, informally referred to as "banana money", was released solely in the form of banknotes, as metals were considered essential to the war effort. The languages used on the notes were reduced to English and Japanese. Each note bears a different obverse and reverse design, but all have a similar layout, and were marked with stamped block letters that begin with "M" for "Malaya". This 1945 one-thousand-dollar Japanese-issued banknote, depicting a bullock cart on the obverse and a man with water buffaloes in a stream on the reverse, is part of the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution.
Other denominations: '"`UNIQ--templatestyles-0000000D-QINU`"'
Kishū kumano iwatake tori (Iwatake mushroom gathering at Kumano in Kishu), 1860, a ukiyo-e print created by Hiroshige II. It is part of the series "100 Famous Views of Japan".
A registration card for Louis Wijnhamer (1904–1975), an ethnic Dutch humanitarian who was captured soon after the Empire of Japan occupied the Dutch East Indies in March 1942. Prior to the occupation, many ethnic Europeans had refused to leave, expecting the Japanese occupation government to keep a Dutch administration in place. When Japanese troops took control of government infrastructure and services such as ports and postal services, 100,000 European (and some Chinese) civilians were interned in prisoner-of-war camps where the death rates were between 13 and 30 per cent. Wijnhamer was interned in a series of camps throughout Southeast Asia and, after the surrender of Japan, returned to what was now Indonesia, where he lived until his death.
Asahi Breweries is a Japanese global beer, spirits, soft drinks and food business group. This photograph, taken during the blue hour with a full moon, shows the headquarters of Asahi Breweries in Sumida, Tokyo, as viewed from the wharf on the Sumida River near Azuma Bridge. The Asahi Beer Hall, topped by the Asahi Flame, designed by Philippe Starck, is visible on the right, with the Tokyo Skytree in the background on the left.
Before the outbreak of World War I, German naval ships were located in the Pacific; Tsingtao developed into a major seaport while the surrounding Kiautschou Bay area was leased to Germany since 1898. During the war, Japanese and British Allied troops besieged the port in 1914 before capturing it from the German and Austro-Hungarian Central Powers, occupying the city and the surrounding region. It served as a base for the exploitation of the natural resources of Shandong province and northern China, and a "New City District" was established to furnish the Japanese colonists with commercial sections and living quarters. Tsingtao eventually reverted to Chinese rule by 1922.
A map of Nagasaki, Japan depicting the city before and after the atomic bombing of August 9, 1945. The radius of total destruction was about 1.6 km (1 mile), followed by fires across the northern portion of the city to 3.2 km (2 miles) south of the bomb.
Located at the Buddhist temple Hōryū-ji, Yumedono (Hall of Dreams) was built on the ground which was once Prince Shōtoku's private palace. The present incarnation of this hall was built in 739 to assuage the Prince's spirit.
Banknotes: Empire of Japan. Reproduction: National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution
The Japanese-issued Netherlands Indies gulden was the currency issued by the Japanese Empire when it occupied the Dutch East Indies during World War II. Following the Dutch capitulation in March 1942, the Japanese closed all banks, seized assets and currency, and assumed control of the economy in the territory. They began issuing military banknotes, as had previously been done in other occupied territories. These were printed in Japan, but retained the name of the pre-war currency and replaced the Dutch gulden at par. From 1943 the military banknotes were replaced by identical bank-issued notes printed within the territory, and the currency was renamed the roepiah from 1944. The currency was replaced by the Indonesian rupiah in 1946, one year after the Japanese surrender and the country's independence.
This note, denominated five gulden, is part of the 1942 series.
Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige), a copy of the ukiyo-e woodblock print Plum Park in Kameido by the Japanese artist Hiroshige. Completed in 1887, this painting is one of several Japanese-influenced works created by Vincent van Gogh after the opening up of Japan. In his copy, van Gogh ignored the shading present in the trunk and background of Hiroshige's image, which there implied age, and instead used colours with more "passion" and "youthfulness".
Eir Aoi (Japanese: 藍井 エイル, Hepburn: Aoi Eiru, born November 30, 1988) is a Japanese singer from Sapporo, Hokkaido, signed to Sacra Music. After being discovered through the Japanese video sharing website Niconico, Aoi made her major debut in 2011 with the release of her first single "Memoria", whose title track was used as the first ending theme to the 2011 anime television series Fate/Zero.
Aoi's music has been featured in various anime television series such as Sword Art Online, Kill la Kill, and The Heroic Legend of Arslan, as well as other television programs such as Rank Okoku. She has performed at various anime conventions in Asia, Europe, North and South America. She has cited her interest in anime, as well as artists such as Evanescence, Slipknot, and Do As Infinity, as influences in her career. In October 2016, following prolonged bouts of poor health, she announced an indefinite hiatus from musical activities following a two-day concert at the Nippon Budokan in November 2016. In February 2018, it was announced that she would resume her activities later that year. (Full article...)
Ehime Prefecture is a prefecture in northwestern Shikoku, Japan. The capital is Matsuyama. Until the Meiji Restoration, Ehime prefecture was known as Iyo province. Since before the Heian period, the area was dominated by fishermen and sailors who played an important role in defending Japan against pirates and Mongol invasions. After the Battle of Sekigahara, the Tokugawashōgun gave the area to his allies, including Kato Yoshiaki who built Matsuyama Castle, forming the basis for the modern city of Matsuyama. The name Ehime comes from the Kojiki and means "beautiful maiden." Located in the northwestern part of Shikoku, Ehime faces the Seto inland sea to the north and is bordered by Kagawa and Tokushima in the east and Kochi in the south. The prefecture includes both high mountains in the inland region and a long coastline, with many islands in the Seto inland Sea. The westernmost arm of Ehime, the Sadamisaki Peninsula, is the longest peninsula in Japan. The area around Matsuyama has a number of industries, including shipbuilding, chemicals, oil refining, and paper and textile products. The rural areas of the prefecture mostly engage in agricultural and fishing industries, and are particularly known for citrus fruit such as mikan (tangerine) and iyokan and cultured pearls.
Image 17Relief map of the land and the seabed of Japan. It shows the surface and underwater terrain of the Japanese archipelago. (from Geography of Japan)
Image 18Atomic cloud over Hiroshima, 1945 (from History of Japan)
Image 19A handscroll painting dated c. 1130, illustrating a scene from the "Bamboo River" chapter of The Tale of Genji (from History of Japan)
Image 20A social hierarchy chart based on old academic theories. Such hierarchical diagrams were removed from Japanese textbooks after various studies in the 1990s revealed that peasants, craftsmen, and merchants were in fact equal and merely social categories. Successive shoguns held the highest or near-highest court ranks, higher than most court nobles. (from History of Japan)
Image 27Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder of the Kamakura shogunate in 1192. This was the first military government in which the shogun with the samurai were the de facto rulers of Japan. (from History of Japan)
Image 45Mount Aso 4 pyroclastic flow and the spread of Aso 4 tephra (90,000 to 85,000 years ago). The pyroclastic flow reached almost the whole area of Kyushu, and volcanic ash was deposited of 15 cm in a wide area from Kyushu to southern Hokkaido. (from Geography of Japan)
Image 46Japanese archipelago with outlined islands (from Geography of Japan)
Image 48Territorial extent of Yamato court during the Kofun period (from History of Japan)
Image 49Japanese experts inspect the scene of the alleged railway sabotage on South Manchurian Railway that led to the Mukden Incident and the Japanese occupation of Manchuria. (from History of Japan)
Image 58The Kuril Islands, with their Russian names. The borders of the Treaty of Shimoda (1855) and the Treaty of St. Petersburg (1875) are shown in red. Currently, all islands northeast of Hokkaido are administered by Russia. (from Geography of Japan)
Image 59Map showing the territories of major daimyō families around 1570 CE (from History of Japan)
Image 63Samurai could kill a commoner for the slightest insult and were widely feared by the Japanese population. Edo period, 1798. (from History of Japan)