#manchurian incident

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

Police break up anti-imperialist protest, Washington DC: 1932 A protest took place near the Japanese Embassy at 2514 Massachusetts Ave. NW in Washington, D.C..

Police attacked the 30 demonstrators with clubs, fists and blackjacks while staff at the Japanese chancery watched from the roof and windows.

The protestors resisted and knocked down several of the police, including one who was hospitalized as a result of the confrontation. One of the demonstrators, Joan Hardy, was knocked unconscious during the fight.

When International Labor Defense attorney Bernard Ades went to seek their release at the Third Precinct station, Superintendent of the Police Pelham Glassford expelled him from the station.

Glassford had ordered the arrest of the demonstrators for parading without a permit, even though they were on the sidewalk and not blocking traffic. Some of the demonstrators were also charged with assault.

The Japanese army invaded Manchuria on the mainland in November 1931. Chinese forces resisted until February of 1932 when they were defeated. Guerilla warfare continued until the end of World War II in 1945. Reports and photos of Japanese bombing of civilians and shooting of unarmed survivors caused revulsion around the world at the expansion of the Japanese empire.

The Japanese invasion of Manchuria is regarded as the opening salvo in what became World War II.

1) Police break up a peaceful demonstration protesting Japanese army atrocities in Manchuria near the Japanese Embassy at 2514 Massachusetts Ave. NW in Washington, D.C. on March 26, 1932.

2) A police officer wrestles a demonstrator to the ground March 26, 1932 while breaking up a peaceful demonstration protesting Japanese army atrocities in Manchuria.

3) Two women fight back as police break up a peaceful demonstration protesting Japanese army atrocities in Manchuria near the Japanese Embassy at 2514 Massachusetts Ave. NW in Washington, D.C. on March 26, 1932.A sign can be seen reading “Withdraw All Troops from China.”

4) Two of twenty demonstrators arrested by police are awaiting “black marias” (paddy wagons) after a fight with police who broke up a peaceful demonstration protesting Japanese army atrocities in Manchuria near the Japanese Embassy at 2514 Massachusetts Ave. NW in Washington, D.C. on March 26, 1932.

Source.

[gwydpolls]

What Movie Would You Like to See a Quality Updated Remake of?

Please suggest more if you have them.

[centrally-unplanned]

(belatedly inspired by Japan 1941) - got a VOR ranking for Fumimaro Konoe?

Oh god I just effort-posted a fuck ton so this is just off the cuff for a very hard question okay? I am going to go with a D-tier here, that is my instinct. I think earlier PM's, like Wakatsuki during the Manchurian Incident in 1931, did have "agency" and failed to execute it in reigning in the growing independence and radicalism of the military. But after Manchuria, after the May 1932 incident, and certainly after 2-26 in 1936, the "Gekokujo" spirit and the military cliques were running the show. And Japan's war in China and growing drift into doom at America's hands is like the poster child for VOR analysis, right? No one could stop it. Every step in China Konoe was like "whats the plan guys??" and the army would be like "we kill more chinese? They will...run of manpower I guess???" but backing down wasn't possible because this is why the military spent half a decade murdering politicians, can't quit now, that would be cringe right? And of course Konoe was no pacifist, he spent half of 1938 cheering on the victories and rejecting peace options an only pivoted back when things got dire and the escalation had gone too far.

I respect him for not backing down at least when it came to the US. He legitimately, authentically tried to convince the Japanese factions that war with the US was Very Bad and endorsed more concessions than most were willing. It just never could have mattered.

[ratfuck]

some horny trans girl is going to post something that will activate a manchurian candidate sleeper agent's programming and cause an incident

[twentiethcenturymoviesandtv]

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: Genre and Themes

At first glance, indeed, even at second glance, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington doesn’t seem to really lend itself to a specific genre the way The Goonies or The Princess Bride did.  Whereas those films positively dripped with the atmosphere of an adventure or fantasy film, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is considerably more ‘real world’ than that, without necessarily heading into ‘slice of life’ territory.

If story is the backbone of a film, the underlying solid base, then genre is the trappings, the flavor, the seasonings the writers get to play with to create their final dish.  Some stories automatically come with pre-packaged genre, as it would seem, stories like Frankenstein seem little suited to be anything other than a sci-fi horror film, after all, but most, and indeed some would say all stories have the capabilities of remaining solid in their identities, even with a completely different genre than we’re used to.

In the case of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, however, there doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of ingredients to mix.

Officially, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is labeled as a ‘political comedy-drama’, an eclectic mishmash of styles that doesn’t necessarily rear its head too often in the realm of film.  Political films tend to be more true stories like All the President’s Men, or thrillers like The Manchurian Candidate.  Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is neither.  However, that isn’t to say it’s not political.

The entire world of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is politics.  It lives and breathes the inner workings of American bureaucracy, without either exploiting or sugarcoating it.

It is, at its core, an anti-politics political film.  There is no pleasure that the film derives from exposing any corruption, nor does it take pains to pretend that corruption does not exist.  It freely paints the politicians and the non-politicians as people, dealing with consequences to their actions: from Senator Paine, the tarnished hero, to Clarissa Saunders, the cynical, worn-out tool of Washington.  The focus of the story is not so much on the inner workings of the state and country as it is the people that perform them, that manipulate the cogs of the machine to their own benefit, and those who stand to prevent it.

It’s not a very technical film.  You don’t have to have a degree in law in order to understand the film, or allow it to resonate, and that, perhaps, is what makes it so special.

The ‘political’ slant of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington isn’t in the process that Saunders outlines to Jefferson in order to get his bill passed.  On the contrary, the bill itself is a minor incident, the catalyst that forces the corruption out into the open.  The story isn’t about the bill at all, nor is it even about the plot of the other politicians: it is about the politicians themselves.  There are no parties mentioned, no real figures portrayed, no accurate historical events referenced: and yet something about this film did strike a chord in the very real Washington D.C.

Upon Mr. Smith’s release in Constitution Hall, DC dissolved into uproar about the film’s portrayal of American politics, to the point that Alben W. Barkley, the Senate Majority Leader at the time, remarked that it: “makes the Senate look like a bunch of crooks”.

In other words, something about this film struck some people, mostly the people in Washington, the wrong way.  And yet, even at the time of its initial release, audiences, the Mr. Smiths of the USA, adored it for a reason.

At its core, chiefly, yes, Mr. Smith is a film about politics, and even history.  Every fiber of the movie vibrates with patriotism, with love for America, and with pride in democracy.  The film is not a condemnation as such as it is a warning: ‘we will lose what we have built if we think only of ourselves.’  It is a perfect combination of both a celebration of America’s past, and a concern for the future, a notation of the path the nation’s leaders seemed to be going down.  Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a story about big P Politics, all right, but it is not a scowling, scolding film, pointing an accusatory finger at the little p politicians, the fallen white knights.  It is instead a film that holds up a figure of a person who knows on what the country was founded, and believes in it so strongly enough that he forces a change, even if it’s a small one.

And the film is also pretty funny, too.

The genre of ‘comedy’ tends to bring to mind slapstick or wordplay classics, and in the 1930s, the ‘comedians’ definitely had their specific brands: the Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, and others were taking cinema by storm.  Audiences, especially in the middle of the Great Depression, desperately wanted a laugh, and even though there were no pratfalls in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, there is a wry sense of humor about it, particularly near the beginning.

Early scenes in this film play almost like scenes from a ‘fish out of water’ comedy, with Jefferson Smith having no idea how to function in the new, fast-moving, cynical climate of Washington D.C.  Other characters, such as Saunders and Diz, exist as quip-generating machines, full of the fast-paced, witty dialogue characteristic of films of the time.  Many of the more comedic sequences in the story come about through direct conversation between Saunders and Smith and the subsequent clash of ideas and personalities.

So yeah, Mr. Smith is a pretty funny movie at times.  I must admit though, it’s hard to make the argument that it’s a comedy.

Smith’s plight is not comedic, at least, not more than halfway through the story.  He is not a comedic figure, nor are most of the characters around him.  While one could make the argument that the initial conceit of the story is comedic, I am hard pressed to agree that the story remains a comedy throughout.  If anything, the throughline of tragedy seems clearer, notably in the character of Senator Paine.

Paine is what Smith could have been: a noble figure broken by greed, by corruption, by fear, turned into another cog in someone else’s profit machine, willing to throw countless people under the bus for gain.  By the end of the story, he is not only guilty, he is convicted, ashamed after being forced to confront what he has become.  His story nearly ends in suicide, and it certainly ends in the ruination of his career, after having thrown away belief in all of the words he is so used to spouting.  He is the warning thrust up before contemporary Washington’s eyes: the white knight tarnished by greed.

Smith’s story, though uncorrupted, is similarly bleak: unbelieved, unheard, and unable to get the word out, he ends the film exhausted and crushed after hours of seeming futility.  The film’s happy ending does not come as a result of all of his hard work, but through the guilt of Senator Paine driving him to confess.  Smith does not reach the climax of the film like a comedy protagonist does at all, but like a tragic hero.

And yet, this film isn’t a tragedy either.

So what is it?

I have a theory: that a film’s genre can be best solidified through a few major checkpoints: its themes, and its characters, specifically its protagonist.

The themes of Mr. Smith are obvious ones: duty to one’s country, certainly, but honesty above all.  The liars are the villains, and the heroes tell the truth.  The story is built around good morals and simplicity, with the center of virtue being Mr. Smith himself.

In another era, Smith himself may have been a knight in shining armor, risen to his position from peasantry to achieve noble deeds.  As it is, in 1930s America, Smith is an ordinary man in an extraordinary position: an everyday guy elevated to the position of senator.  

Of course, the intention was never to give him any real power, but nonetheless, power he wields.  And it’s his decisions on handling that power that set him apart from the other characters.  He behaves very much like a normal person, an average citizen in a political jungle with very little navigation.  There is no hero’s journey here: if anything, Mr. Smith finishes the story as a broken, more cynical character rather than a triumphant hero.  The victory is in refusing to compromise your principles, no matter the cost or circumstance, and there is no dragon to slay here: just men, corrupted by power.

In other words, it’s a drama.

While there are many forms of ‘drama’ in the broad spectrum, typically, the term ‘drama’ means that a subject is more dramatic than humorous, with a primary element of the story being conflict, but not necessarily of the physical kind.  It’s a story with more of an emphasis on who the story is happening to, and why, with less concern for what exactly is happening.

Such is the case for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

Mr. Smith is a story about real people, people you or I might know, from the virtuous Jefferson Smith to the cynical Ms. Saunders, to the corrupt, but still human, politicians, some malicious, some merely led astray from their previous values.  This is not a story of ‘heroes vs. villains’, this is a story about the ‘Right Thing to Do’, and the people with the courage to do it.

And that’s most of its appeal.

Capra’s passion is for people in this film, the everyday, the ordinary, the ‘Little Guy’ who becomes, not a dragonslayer, but a man with the opportunity to truly do some good, faced with tough decisions.  It’s a story full of heart, sprinkled with humor, and loaded with humanity as it views, through very human lenses, the world of politics through a protagonist who’s meant to be a fish out of water.

That is Mr. Smith’s legacy.

The story isn’t groundbreaking.  The cinematography isn’t breathtaking.  The writing isn’t jaw-dropping.  But the people, the characters, live and breathe on the screen as people, characters that the audiences love, and cheer for.  We root for these people because of the drama of the situation, and the time and care that the film takes to delve into them.

That, more than the politics of the situation, is the reason people return to this film again and again.

And that, the people, the characters, is what we’ll be turning our attention to next time.

[pinturas-sgm-aviacion]

1945 01 Nakajima Ki-43-II Ko I Hayabusa Manchukuo - box art Finemolds

‘From Manchurian Oil Company No. 1’

Documentation and footage found by experts indicates that the Manchukuo Imperial Air Force’s Ki-43 Squadron flew the Ki-43 II. Version II was a significant improvement over the Ki-43 I thanks to its 1150hp Nakajima Ha-115 engine, redesigned fuselage of the main wing and a three-bladed propeller. The tremendous increase in power output of the Nakajima engine was achieved by upgrading the Ha-25 powerplant with a two-stage supercharger.  This modification helped to improve the top and cruise speed of the aircraft to 536 km/h and 355 km/h while allowing it’s operational range to stay at an acceptable level of 1610 km without drop tanks. The Manchukuo Imperial Air Force’s Hayabusa squadron was pictured in ‘Manchukuo War Chronicles #283,’ dated 12 December 1944. From this, we learn that the squadron operated from the Fengtian Air Base and consisted of 4 aircraft that had been donated by Manchukuo citizens and the Manchurian Oil Company. Each aircraft carried the name of its sponsor through markings on the fuselage.(...)Based on the date of the ‘Manchukuo War Chronicles’, it can be safely assumed that the Ki-43’s were delivered and began combat operations in 1944.

‘From Manchurian Oil Company No. 1’ was the first of two aircraft donated by Manchurian Oil Company. The company was founded in 1934 and was expected to extract, refine and sell oil to local customers. It was  a joint venture between the state and private owners. However due to lack of suitable oil fields in Manchuria the company needed to import unrefined oil from the US, the UK and other overseas countries to refine at its Dalian refinery.

The Manchukuo puppet air force was given Nakajima Ki-43s in 1945 to have a better chance of intercepting the American B-29 Superfortresses. The Manchukuoan pilots were given the estimated arrival time of the bombers and would take off about twenty minutes before they were due to arrive, climbing to 7,000 meters to make head-on passes before the B-29s got out of range. Some Manchukuoan pilots were also given kamikaze training and at least one downed a B-29 by crashing a Ki-27 into it. By the time the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation was launched by the Soviet Red Army in August 1945, the Manchukuo Air Force had practically ceased to exist, although there were isolated incidents of Manchukuoan planes attacking Soviet aircraft.

[mwsa-member]

Sparks in the Ether; A True Story About a Pioneer Radioman by

MWSA Review Pending  

Author's Synopsis

Navigate the rough seas of the 20th century with George Street, one of a handful of men who spread across the globe, connecting communities to the worldwide wireless telegraphy network. He encountered the Lindberghs and FDR, witnessed an assassination attempt on the Emperor of Japan, scooped the Manchurian Incident, and became ravaged by polio. Faced with financial ruin, foreign doctors, and immobility, he married his Russian mistress. Then, his family betrayed him.

Sparks in the Ether is the prequel to the award-winning book Pearl Harbor's Final Warning; A Man, A Message, and Paradise Lost.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Nonfiction—Creative Nonfiction

Number of Pages: 283

Word Count: 62,254

[sadlyfailinghiranumacabinet]

“HERITAGE RAIDERS” PROVOKING CHINESE POPULATION

Fig. 1: Stolen Ming Dynasty gold coins

The gold crisis in Manchukuo has worsened significantly. Gold mines have been forced to shut down and workers have been laid off not because of insufficient demand. Instead, there is simply a lack of proper management and equipment to supply the workers with the tools they need to extract all the ores efficiently.

In an unexpected turn of events, many workers, mostly Japanese, have resorted to “heritage raiding” to meet gold quotas. Their actions range from stealing from abandoned mansionettes to even robbing prominent families for their historical artefacts to melt down the high amounts of gold contained in them.

These actis has angered the Chinese population in Manchuria and China, further reducing the already dwindling support of the Wang Jingwei government. Furthermore, Chinese partisans have used this incident to gain support, referencing the burning of the Summer Palace to spur resentment. Spies are reporting that insurgency cells, once dormant, have been receiving new recruits. 

With gold extraction efforts in Manchuria already being threatened, sabotage and partisan action by insurgents could hinder the extraction and production of coal, iron ore & steel, food, and hydropower, hampering the war effort for all arms of the military. On the bright side, this may represent an opportunity for Zaibatsus to seize a greater portion of Manchurian industry.

[hanya0805]

Take a Train from Hiroshima to Nagasaki This Summer

As I was born in Hiroshima and my grandfather experienced the Hiroshima bombing at the age of 5 on the outskirts of the city, the Hiroshima bombing has been a crucial and relevant historical event for me. I visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum every chance I get, since childhood, and I offer a minute of silence on August 6 at 8:15 AM watching the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony on TV every year. So, I’ve grown up reading and hearing Hiroshima literature and relating myself to this horrendous historical event. Last winter I visited the newly-renovated peace museum when I visited my grandparents for New Year’s. But as I walked out of the museum it made me wonder: Why isn’t there any contextualization of the bombing? There is no mention of the Pacific War or anything before August 6. If you look at the webpage of The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, the museum’s mission says: To convey to the world the horrors and inhumane nature of nuclear weapons and spread the message of “No More Hiroshimas”  -- through A-bomb artifacts and testimonies of the atomic bomb survivors. NO wonder. Since their mission is dedicated to telling the tragedy of Hiroshima, there is no need to tell a single story about how the war led to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Sheer curiosity took me to the webpage of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum because unfortunately I had never had a chance to pay a visit there and I wanted to know how Nagasaki does the same. But what I found was an interesting difference between the Hiroshima Peace Museum and the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. The Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum devotes one third of their exhibition to placing the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki not only in the context of Japanese history, but also of the history of nuclear weapons and their development. The war history exhibition, titled “The Road to the Atomic Bombing,” looks from the Manchurian Incident in 1931 to the Japan-China War, and follows up with the Pacific War to the defeat of Japan in 1945. They also have sections for the history of the atomic bomb development (especially the Manhattan Project), the nuclear arms race in the Cold War era, and the danger of testing the atomic bomb. It inlcudes the Daigo Fukuryumaru incident, where a Japanese fishing boat happened to encounter a hydrogen bomb test in Bikini Atoll in 1954, and the radiation damage to uranium miners in the US and the Soviet Union.

Reading through the websites of both museums about the atomic bombing, I came to realize that the two museums have different goals and approaches in their exhibitions. Hiroshima points out the tragedy of Hiroshima and is trying to create the discourse of “No More Hiroshimas”: Nuclear weapons are inhumane and must not be used again because they caused such atrocities in Hiroshima. Nagasaki, on the other hand, takes a comprehensive view. Nagasaki does tell what happened on August 9 as Hiroshima does: A-bomb artifacts, testimonies of Nagasaki survivors are there. But there are sections of exhibition dedicated to contextualizing the Nagasaki bombing in the context of Japanese military history or the history of nuclear power emphasize that Hiroshima and Nagasaki are a part of the nuclear tragedy for human beings as a whole. It resonates with Kyoko Hayashi’s (Nagasaki survivor) remark in From Trinity to Trinity when she visits the Trinity Site in New Mexico: “As soon as I started walking through the small passage within the fenced area led by a guide, my always-present awareness of being a victim disappeared from my mind.” When Hayashi visits the Trinity Site, she comes to feel compassion for Trinity as a survivor of the atomic bomb, beyond the differences of nations, enemy-friends, time, and distance.

I regret that I haven’t ever visited Nagasaki. I thought that the Hiroshima and Nagasaki experiences were similar, and the museums would be similar too. But I was wrong. They do carry different missions and messages, and it is important to visit both places and museums (and the Trinity Site as well) if you want to understand the atomic bombings more completely. A sad thing is that my perspective – visiting only one site (mostly Hiroshima) – is not rare for a lot of visitors, especially foreign visitors. In fact, Hiroshima attracts more visitors than Nagasaki, and the proportion of foreign visitors is bigger for the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum: Hiroshima has 1,522,453 visitors (434,838 foreign visitors) in 2018, but Nagasaki attracts 705,314 visitors (including 135,900 foreign visitors) in 2017. I understand that Hiroshima gains more attention because it was the first place that the atomic bomb was dropped on people. Nonetheless, it shouldn’t deprive Nagasaki of the opportunity to convey their message and understanding of the atomic bombings. So, I want to say, take a train from Hiroshima to Nagasaki with me! I’ve decided to visit Nagasaki this summer, as have been tempted to do since I now know what the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum offers us. It’s a 4-hour train trip from Hiroshima to Nagasaki, and I promise that your trip to Nagasaki, combined with a visit to Hiroshima, will give you more perspectives on the history and round out your understanding of the atomic bombings.

A quote is from From Trinity to Trinity by Kyoko Hayashi and Eiko Otake (Translator)

「平和記念資料館、外国人入館者が６年連続過去最多」朝日新聞　2019.4.16

「原爆関連施設の入場者数が増加　核廃絶へ　機運高まり要因か」長崎新聞 2018.5.18

*I wrote this piece in the winter of 2020 and visited Nagasaki later.

[poem-today]

A poem by William Empson

Aubade

Hours before dawn we were woken by the quake. My house was on a cliff. The thing could take Bookloads off shelves, break bottles in a row. Then the long pause and then the bigger shake. It seemed the best thing to be up and go. And far too large for my feet to step by. I hoped that various buildings were brought low. The heart of standing is you cannot fly. It seemed quite safe till she got up and dressed. The guarded tourist makes the guide the test. Then I said The Garden? Laughing she said No. Taxi for her and for me healthy rest. It seemed the best thing to be up and go. The language problem but you have to try. Some solid ground for lying could she show? The heart of standing is you cannot fly. None of these deaths were her point at all. The thing was that being woken he would bawl And finding her not in earshot he would know. I tried saying half an hour to pay this call. It seemed the best thing to be up and go. I slept, and blank as that I would yet lie. Till you have seen what a threat holds below, The heart of standing is you cannot fly. Tell me again about Europe and her pains, Who's tortured by the drought, who by the rains. Glut me with floods where only the swine can row Who cuts his throat and let him count his gains. It seemed the best thing to be up and go. A bedshift flight to Far Eastern sky. Only the same war on a stronger toe. The heart of standing is you cannot fly. Tell me more quickly what I lost by this, Or tell me with less drama what they miss Who call no die a god for a good throw, Who say after two aliens and one kiss It seemed the best thing to be up and go. But as to risings, I can tell you why. It is on contradiction that they grow. It seemed the best thing to be up and go. Up was the heartening and strong reply. The heart of standing is we cannot fly.

William Empson  (1906-1984)

Listen to William Empson read his poem (20:48)

Author's Note: The same war in Tokyo then was the Manchurian Incident .... When I was in Japan, from 1931 to 1934, it was usual for the old hand in the English colony to warn the young man: don’t you go and marry a Japanese because we’re going to be at war with Japan within ten years; you'll have awful trouble if you marry a Japanese; and this is what the poem is about.

Image: The 1933 Sanriku earthquake occurred on the Sanriku coast of the Tōhoku region of Honshū, Japan on March 2 with a moment magnitude of 8.4.

[jpt3391]

No Regrets for Our Youth 

The movie sets the scene right away by playing somber music and having a wall of text that the audience member must read to understand the basis of the story. Because of prior knowledge of Japanese history, I was able to put into more context the reasons Kurosawa made this piece of art and its importance as well. It clearly set the tone as a political piece, but especially for that time, it was important for the public to understand what they had done. The events in question being the Kyoto University incident, also known as the Takigawa Incident (which is named after the professor that was fired, in the movie I believe it was her father who played that character but they did not use the same name), and the Manchurian Incident (an event where Japanese nationalists falsely accused China of bombing their railway and led to Japan invading Manchuria). Both of these events are crucial in understanding the context behind the movie. But moving on from that, it is clear that Yukie understands what is happening in the political scene, but similar to her love life, she chooses to turn away and just “freely” and enjoy herself. One of the shots that I found interesting was the one where Itokawa and Noge are both reaching for her hand, as it represents two views of Japan at the time. Because of that, we, as the audience, can draw the connection between Yukie and her personification of Japan itself. 

The things that she experiences throughout the movie are similar to what the Japanese people went through in understanding the government’s actions. For example, when she discovered the body that was laying on the hill, I felt the illusion that she had made, crumbling before her eyes. Right before she saw the body, she talked about how she admired the sound of military maneuvers and the gunfire that they do. Similar to I Was Born But…, the image of the military as noble and just, rather than being seen in a realistic sense, is an important scene of realization that not only Yukie went through, but I can imagine the audience went through as they watched it for the first time. Kurosawa pans down from the shot of their bewildered faces onto the body and I interpreted that as their spirits falling as they saw it. 

Yukie's image continues to fall as the years go on, trying to understand herself and the interactions between Noge and Itokawa, but ultimately ends up with Noge who still continues to be a leftist even after all that has happened to him. But that gets shattered when both she and Noge get arrested after being found as spies for attempting to “conspire” against the government, but for their freedom. Overall, this movie is an important piece that projects Japan in a different light than what some might be used to, as well as the history behind it which I think Kurosawa captured well.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Directs Japan’s Drive,” Kingston Whig-Standard. February 23, 1933. Page 1. ---- LIEUT. GEN. KUNIAKI KOISO Who is said to be the directing genius of the Japanese drive into Jehol province. He is reported to have expressed the opinion that it would take two or three years to suppress banditry and bring real peace into the province.

[steege-jpt3391]

Blog Post #3: No Regrets for Our Youth by Akira Kurosawa

This film was definitely one that wasn’t on my radar after watching a bunch of Kurosawa films already, but I thought it was pretty interesting to dig into some of his early works, especially those not relating to samurai (because there’s a lot of them). No Regrets for Our Youth follows our protagonist Yukie, who is raised by the professor of all the students that Yukie spends her time with. The film plays with time skips where at the beginning of the film, we see all the characters interacting with the student protests and fight for academic freedom following the Manchurian Incident, then jumps to different points in time of Japan battling with the war. The film was filled with a lot of allusions to real events that occurred in the 30s and 40s in Japan, and also showed how that shaped Yukie’s growth over the course of the film.

I, personally, was not the biggest fan of the film because I found it a little hard to follow along with all of the events that were occurring in the background. While we learned a little bit about the protests in Japan and talked about the Sino-Japanese War and the Manchurian Incident in Japanese Culture class, I found it took away from my overall enjoyment of the film because I wasn’t sure what to direct my focus on. While there are probably some people who disagree with me as while you could argue that the events regarding the Japanese socio-political environment set the stage for the film and served as the main setting for our characters, I found myself struggling to pick the important things to focus on: the characters and their development or how the story progressed in regards to the plot. 

While I felt the overarching theme was powerful and explored well through Yukie, Noge, and Itokawa, I didn’t like how in-your-face it was. The message of living life without regrets is very powerful as, how Yukie described it, there’s a fine line between being alive and living. Yukie was conflicted regarding her true purpose in life and it was amazing to see her come through and affirm herself in the life that she wanted to live. It was also because of the characters around her that caused her to reach that conclusion because it appeared as if everyone was moving forward but she was stuck behind: Itokura became a prosecutor and Noge a very powerful and important figure in the leftist movement. This might be a personal thing, though, but I did not like how much it “title-dropped.” The overarching theme for the movie was shoved in your face and almost forced you to recognize that, versus the viewers picking up on their own interpretations. Some people may disagree with my opinion, I’m not always the biggest fan of what the director intended the film to be because at the end of the day, I’m watching for my enjoyment not for enjoying it the way the director intended it to be. All in all, it was a fun watch but not my favorite.

[blue-thief]

gonna use this as an opportunity to plug some info about japan's war crimes because we never talk about this in the west. if anyone has anything they would like to add on, go ahead because most of my knowledge is about the philippines specifically and a little bit about china.

(tw for rape, democide & genocide, torture, unethical medical experiments, war crimes in general, etc.)

the actual statistics of how many people died in a multitude of countries across asia

the manchurian incident

comfort women

the rape of nanking (also recommend: the poppy war series by rf kuang which includes a fictionalized version of many of the war crimes committed by japan on china, as well as the aftermath)

unit 731

the battle of manila

the battle of bataan & the bataan death march

propaganda in the philippines

begging everyone who is NOT a part of a group historically targeted by the nazis and/or the japanese imperial army to just listen for a moment. while the INTENTION may have been to portray kaiser in a WWI uniform, his clothing does still resemble what actual nazis wore. furthermore, you can't have a conversation about german history by ignoring the connections between WWI and WWII. the IMPACT is the repeated romanticization of the image of the axis powers in animanga, fuelling further ignorance in general japanese society.

korean fans are pissed, and rightfully so, because how many more times are non-japanese east and southeast asians supposed to forgive japanese ignorance when we've repeatedly criticized the romanticization of modern and contemporary japanese militarization in so many animanga franchises?? it's happened with hetalia, attack on titan, bungou stray dogs, and so many other franchises. it's not fun seeing the people who have raped, murdered, and tortured your relatives and their allies be portrayed in a cool and bad-ass way in anime.

there may be some mistakes here but i literally just woke up, and i woke up to this. dumb comments from non-affected groups will be blocked.

[hjccmuneast2023]

Mukden Mayhem: The Explosive Manchurian Crisis Has Begun

We find ourselves entrenched in the gripping "Manchuria Mystery Unfolds," an enigmatic chapter in the annals of international relations. The Mukden Incident, a seismic event in September 1931, continues to shroud itself in mystery as the Japanese Kwantung Army and Chinese rebels trade accusations with more intrigue than a detective novel. The Lytton Commission's ongoing investigation has yet to unveil the truth behind this explosion, and Manchuria remains ensnared in uncertainty. As the world watches, Japan's consolidation of power in the region advances, while international responses have been marked by criticism and caution. The U.S. and the U.K. have raised their voices in condemnation, while the USSR navigates a complex diplomatic dance. On February 16, 1932, Japan officially declared the state of Manchukuo, setting the stage for a complex diplomatic tableau. Delegates are reminded to abstain from consulting information beyond this date, as the intricate plot of this crisis continues to unfold.

[pionia-milly]

Watch "China-Soviet War: The Forgotten Conflict" on YouTube

Who gave to Uigru and Tibet to chinese manchurian? I think Beijing and Dam if China is break this land will become new countries. Vietnam 's land in china will belong to the Vietnam. Uighurs will be have their land back and Tibet will Tibet so Panda belong to Tibet and so on.. , japan close to China and Russia than North Korea because North Korea is very high land from chinese Manchuria and who made Machuria incident and did vivisection to Chinese, Korean and Russian? They don't understand big sin today too. Evil mind act evil. Everthing come from mindvso we know who is evil or not! This evil peoples always talk white list red something put illusion to people's head and we are ruined mind by this evil's illusion. My mind push this island country to Pacific and near Indonesia hoho