Questions tagged [japan]
An island country in the western Pacific, located east of the Asian mainland.
324
questions
13
votes
1answer
2k views
Did Japanese modernisation have an effect on Ethiopia?
On his wikipedia page, Tekle Hawariat Tekle Mariyam, "the primary author of Ethiopia's July 1931 constitution" the article calls him a
politician and intellectual of the Japanizer school
...
3
votes
3answers
333 views
Were the Japanese “Kongo” class battlewagons advanced for their time?
Built in the early 1910s, Japan's Kongo class battlecruisers had eight 14-inch guns, a speed of about 30 knots, and a displacement of about 26,000 tons. This gave them advantages over British ...
14
votes
1answer
2k views
What kind of football was played in 645 Japan?
In the book History of Japan by Richard Mason, the author states in chapter 3:
In the year 645, opponents of the Soga leaders struck back. The final coup was preceded by careful preparations that ...
-1
votes
1answer
98 views
What are the outer vests/jackets that samurai wear?
What are the outer vests/jackets that samurai wear some sort of jacket, what are they called?
4
votes
2answers
267 views
Why were Japanese escort ships not numerous at the battle of Bismarck Sea?
During the battle of Bismarck sea, Allied units performed air attacks that resulted in the nearly destruction of Japanese fleet.
I understand the reasons why the Allies obtain such a success, namely:
...
4
votes
0answers
39 views
What went into an Edo-era Hyakkumonogatari Kaidankai?
I was looking for information on the Edo-era parlour game hyakkumonogatari kaidankai. I found a lot of academic sources about kaidan themselves (the history, spread, adaption, influence, etc.) But at ...
3
votes
1answer
156 views
How did the Japanese populace view the emperor during the Edo Period?
What was the context behind the Sonnō Jōi (尊皇攘夷, "revere the emperor and repel the barbarians") movement?
To my understanding, the Edo Shogunate was a typical feudal society with strict ...
1
vote
0answers
91 views
What is the flag on Shinzo Abe's suit? [closed]
and are random a photos from a performance of Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe. The emblem number 1, as I understand, is the Imperial Seal. But I couldn't find any information about the emblem ...
4
votes
2answers
453 views
Did the US really consider demonstrating the atomic bomb to the Japanese by “blowing the top” off of Mt. Fuji?
In reading this Washington Post article titled Five myths about the atomic bomb, it's mentioned:
The decision to use nuclear weapons is usually presented as either/or: either drop the bomb or land on ...
4
votes
0answers
112 views
Who did Murasaki Shikibu fall in love with?
A line from Donald Keene's introductory text about The Tale of Genji piqued my curiosity:
We know little else about Murasaki’s early years, though her poems suggest that she fell in love at least ...
6
votes
1answer
195 views
How old was Murasaki Shikibu when she married her second cousin? And why did she marry him?
From Wikipedia:
Aristocratic Heian women lived restricted and secluded lives, allowed to speak to men only when they were close relatives or household members. Murasaki's autobiographical poetry ...
-5
votes
1answer
214 views
Why did the USA stop expanding westwards into East Asia?
Why did the USA stop expanding westwards into East Asia? The USA initially started on the east coast of North America, and gradually expanded westwards to reach the Pacific Ocean through a combination ...
3
votes
1answer
156 views
What did the Edo samurai bureaucracy actually look like?
While researching the Japanese Edo period, the Samurai class are frequently described as bureaucrats and the government is described as a "sophisticated bureaucracy", often with detailed ...
2
votes
0answers
298 views
What led to Japan committing war crimes in WWII? [closed]
Japan committed cruel war crimes during World War 2.
According to this article WW2 Japanese war crimes - Japanese Invasion of China 1937-1944 (World war II two -Asian Holocaust)
and this The Asian ...
6
votes
1answer
187 views
Why are some school systems from September–July versus others that go April–March?
I've heard from colleagues and on-line sources that the Japanese school system starts the school year on 1st of April and I've heard the same used to be true in Germany. In Belgium, where I live, I ...
5
votes
3answers
1k views
To what extent is the flora and fauna on Guadalcanal edible?
At the battle of Guadalcanal,, the initial wave of 11,000 Americans were stranded with something like two weeks' worth of food (five days worth of "landed" rations, nine days worth of ...
4
votes
1answer
259 views
Why were the Marines so badly outnumbered at the critical point at Guadalcanal?
Prior to the battle of Guadalcanal,, the Americans had landed 11,000 men on the island in August, 1942. This compares to the 5,000 or so men that the Japanese had on the island by the first week of ...
4
votes
0answers
70 views
What was the political context of the Japanese “North Ezo” explorations?
Mamiya Rinzō explored Sakhalin in 1808. This seems to have been the culmination of a series of explorations, which started in the 1770's, and in which the Japanese discovered much of the northern ...
19
votes
1answer
3k views
What are the hay effigies in this Japanese movie?
I am moving this question from Movies.SE in hope of getting the answer here
The movie The Blind Swordsman Zaitochi (2003) takes places somewhere in a small town in Japan, probably around the 19th ...
7
votes
2answers
322 views
What did the Japanese military do to maintain their fighting edge during the Edo era/Bakufu (1603-1868)?
After Tokugawa unified Japan, it entered a long era of militarized peace 1603-1868, with very limited warfare, a severely isolationist attitude and strict limits to weaponry (guns were essentially ...
asked Jul 29 at 18:07
Italian Philosophers 4 Monica
4,8262 gold badges18 silver badges30 bronze badges
8
votes
0answers
228 views
What is the source of “the three most useless things in the world are the Great Wall, pyramids, and the Yamato”?
I watched 'Naval Legends: Yamato' yesterday, and it included a phrase that was attributed to the crew of the ship: "The world's three most useless things are the Chinese Great Wall, Egyptian ...
8
votes
1answer
302 views
How dangerous was it to be a coast watcher during the Pacific War?
The movie, South Pacific featured two "coast watchers" as heroes, the American, Lt. Joseph Cable, and the Frenchman, Emil de Becque, who observed, and reported on Japanese naval movements. ...
2
votes
0answers
100 views
Did the Japanese use native Camellia species before Camellia sinensis was introduced from China?
According to Wikipedia the first known references to tea occured in the 9th century, when Buddhist monks introduced tea, a drink made from Camellia sinensis to Japan.
The Camellia variety sinensis is ...
10
votes
3answers
394 views
Why was the wording on war in Japan's postwar constitution so much stronger than in Germany's or Italy's?
From Hathway and Shapiro (2017):
The Allies supervised the drafting of new constitutions for each of the Axis powers and enshrined the prohibition on war into each state’s own governing documents. ...
2
votes
0answers
60 views
What is the Diet when referring to Post-War Japan? [closed]
I'm currently doing a study on America's influence on Post-War Japan and it mentions a lot about a group called 'The Diet' and I can't find any information on who they actually are. Can anyone help ...
5
votes
3answers
296 views
What was the main purpose in Japan trying to capture the Dutch East Indies oil fields intact?
The Dutch East Indies campaign saw Japan try to capture the Dutch East Indies oilfields intact, i.e. before the local troops destroyed them:
After these main objectives in Borneo were completed, the ...
11
votes
2answers
1k views
How did himuros operate for storing and transporting ice in Heian Japan?
I'm trying to learn more about himuros (ice houses) and ice transportation in 1000 AD Japan. Does anyone have good articles, or can describe in more detail what they looked like, and how ice was ...
20
votes
1answer
2k views
Were taiko drums used to determine village sizes?
Were taiko drums used to determine village size? If so, when was this practice in use?
In 'Full Circle', Michael Palin says that the taiko drums were used to determine village sizes in pre-industrial ...
2
votes
1answer
155 views
Which crown features on the Japanese Order of the Precious Crown?
The Order of the Precious Crown features a crown on its badge. I cannot determine which crown this is.
The order was founded in 1888 by Emperor Meiji, who I cannot find depicted wearing or with any ...
2
votes
0answers
71 views
What was Higo domain's relevance with respect to the Meiji Restoration and later (internal) politics?
Normally, when the Meiji Restoration is considered, the "victors" are listed as Satsuma, Chōshū, and Tosa. This materialised in Satsuma and Choshu leading Imperial Japan's Army while Satsuma and Tosa ...
24
votes
5answers
6k views
Was it possible for a young Japanese woman to end up enslaved in Great Britain in the mid-1600s?
I'm inspired to ask this by the horror visual novel The Letter, which chiefly regards a haunted building called the Ermengarde mansion, in the fictional English town of Anslem, near the equally-...
48
votes
2answers
9k views
Did the leaflets from the US to Hiroshima/Nagasaki civilians on bombing cities reduce the civilian casualties of the two nuclear bombs in August 1945?
I read on Wikipedia
Various leaflets were dropped on Japan, three versions showing the names of 11 or 12 Japanese cities targeted for destruction by firebombing. The other side contained text stating ...
6
votes
2answers
219 views
What is the origin and significance of karahafu (唐破風)?
The karahafu (唐破風) is perhaps the most instantly recognisable Japanese architectural feature, yet it's origins are not well established in Western literature. Folk etymology suggests that the style ...
1
vote
0answers
113 views
Did the Japenese consider the atomic bomb no worse than any other bomb? [duplicate]
I read another article asserting that the US needlessly dropped the atomic bombs on Japan, but this one had a different spin: the Soviets had already defeated the Japanese. It basically lays out the ...
11
votes
4answers
507 views
How did Soviet soldiers resist tanks during the battle of Shumshu?
During the battle of Shumshu, it is claimed in the Wikipedia article that forces ratio was as follow:
Japan side: 8 500 personnel (combatant and non combatant?) and 77 tanks
Russian side: up to 9 000 ...
9
votes
2answers
689 views
Why did animation become so huge in Japan compared to other countries?
I'd like a general explanation of the historical/cultural reasons that have made anime in Japan so big.
There's clearly disproportion between the Japanese population (I doubt that at any moment since ...
4
votes
2answers
389 views
How did Japan build an extensive rail network in Greater Tokyo?
Their rail network is like a spider web and also wondering how most of the lines are at-grade or eleveted excluding Tokyo Metro/Toei Subway lines, even though the suburbs are very dense with buldings. ...
0
votes
0answers
29 views
Why the Ottoman Empire failed to match Europe whereas Japan managed to? [duplicate]
It seems as if the overall result of the numerous 'reforms' instituted to 'develop and revive' the heavily declining Ottoman Empire eventually was nothing more than to imitate European lifestyle in ...
26
votes
3answers
6k views
Are there incidents of ronin travelling outside Japan as soldiers of fortune?
There are time periods where large numbers of ronin flocked to Edo, and roamed the Japanese countryside looking for some source of income; generally during and right after the Senegoku period and ...
15
votes
4answers
6k views
Why would anyone from Japan be in Northern India in early 1900s?
I am trying to write a fictional history novel.
Can someone tell me why a young man from a wealthy, samurai family from Japan would be in Northern India in the early 1900s (after WW1, before WWII).
...
1
vote
1answer
274 views
What evidence is there of tank-vs-tank combat in Asia during the second world war?
It has been known that the Japanese army during the Second World War did not value tanks highly and as such they were not always used effectively and had significantly worse characteristics than ...
2
votes
1answer
410 views
How did British aircraft fare against Japanese aircraft during the Second World War? [closed]
It goes without saying that both the Supermarine Spitfire used by the UK and the Japanese Mitsubishi Zero are iconic fighter aircraft of the Second World War. But how did these aircraft fare when they ...
2
votes
2answers
520 views
If the Allies had invaded Japan in 1945, would they have been fighting the “weakest” Japanese troops?
Sources such as Basil Collier's "The Second World War: A Military History" list the Japanese forces during the war as being 6 million. My understanding is that the background of these troops is ...
-4
votes
2answers
267 views
How long did it take for Japanese high command to believe 1 bomb could destroy a city? [closed]
In 1776, had a man walked into the Continental Congress and told the Founding Fathers that the city of Boston seemed to be "gone". A few days prior, as he approached Boston, in the distance he'd seen ...
12
votes
4answers
1k views
Why didn't the Japanese develop air defenses after the bombing of Tokyo?
So, I was reading some WWII questions, and a couple of them mentioned the bombing of Tokyo. I had never heard of it before, so I decided to read up on it.
What I don't understand about it is Japan's ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
Were the Nazis actually ever horrified of anything that the Imperial Japanese Army did or vice-versa?
While reading Rationalwiki page on the Rape of Nanjing part of the article really stood out to me:
…such as hanging people by their tongues on iron hooks or burying people to their waists and ...
-1
votes
3answers
2k views
Why did Japan never “apologize” enough for World War 2?
Although Japan kept "apologizing" for atrocities committed during World War 2 for more than 70 years, the apologies were deemed "not sincere enough" by the victims.
This stands in huge contrast with ...
3
votes
0answers
530 views
When did Easter Island start to become such a frequent participant in Japanese Comics?
I recently came across a lot of questions on Anime and Manga Stack Exchange by this user who is the
curator of an exhibition on Easter Island in popular culture (http://www.moaiculture.com)
I ...
54
votes
2answers
12k views
Why does Japan use the same type of AC power outlet as the US?
Does it have something to do with the US taking part in aiding reconstruction of the country after WWII? I've tried googling around for an answer, but every site I find simply states the outlet style, ...
2
votes
1answer
292 views
What effects did World War II have on Japanese animation industry?
I was recently looking up the effects of the world war on Japanese Animation Industry after I made the following observations
It is quite common to see German names in Japanese Anime which could be ...
