Questions tagged [japan]
An island country in the western Pacific, located east of the Asian mainland.
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What percentage of Himeji castle keep remains original...?
Recently I've visited the castle in Matsue, acknowledged as one of twelve remaining Japanese castles with their original keep preserved. There I've learnt that during the Shōwa period it went through ...
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How did Japan do private era name and regnal name prior to Taika?
How did Japanese private era names (shinengo, 私年号/私年號) and regnal names (non era name systems) work before the nengo system? I know starting with Taika they had public era names (公年号/公年號) created by ...
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Which event happened first: Meiji Restoration or Boshin War?
I don't know if first, power was returned to the Emperor and a series of reforms were made to modernize Japan, both things referred to as the Meiji Restoration, and that led to the Boshin War, or if ...
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In the siege of Osaka, how long did Osaka Castle burn?
I've heard that Osaka castle was burned, and I was curious: How long would it take for a structure like this to burn down? I haven't been able to find any records that say how long Osaka Castle ...
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What is the exact reign years for Japanese Emperor Keiko, Emperor Seimu, Emperor Chuai, Empress Jingu and Emperor Nintoku?
According to Wikipedia, although starting with Emperor Sujin, they are with a direct possibility of existence, they still presumed legendary until Empress Jingu. However, Kofun Culture (http://www.t-...
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Were U.S. ships attacked in Tokyo Bay?
I remember my father, who was there, telling me that around the time of the Japanese surrender at the close of WW2 there were night-time attacks by anti-surrender imperialists on several U.S. ships in ...
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How did Japan do era names prior to the reign of Meiji?
How did Japanese era names work before the Issei ichigen system? I know starting with Meiji they had Eras defined by the ruler (Meiji, Taisho, Showa, Heisei, Reiwa), but before that it was more ...
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Why wasn’t Japan colonized by the European empires?
Why wasn’t Japan colonized by the European empires?
That is a question that I have some doubts, European countries like Portugal had already been there, but they never colonized that land.
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Were there concrete plans, 40-41, for Japan to attack Singapore/Indonesia, while avoiding a fight with the US?
(I am writing this from memory, so please forgive inaccuracies in my citations.)
In Shattered Sword I found this mention-in-passing that roughly said:
"While not thinking that a war with the US ...
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Where can I find Japanese oil production figures through WWII?
I am searching for scientific or statistical sources for data on petroleum production in Japan from 1920 till 1945. I had found some statistics in League of Nations Statistical Bulletins, but there is ...
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Is the sword stance in Like a Dragon: Ishin where swordsmen place their palm flat against the hilt a style of Tennen Rishin-ryū? [closed]
In the video game Like A Dragon: Ishin, a major plot point is finding information about the Tennen Rishin style practiced by members of the Shinsengumi during the Bakumatsu period (1853-1867) in Japan....
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Were the alleged CIA attempts to set up an economic spy ring in Japan in the 1980s disclosed in the Japanese press at the time?
According Brad Williams' book Japanese Foreign Intelligence, which also has a chapter (#2) on CIA's activities in spying on Japan, the CIA tried their hand at economic & tech spying on Japan in ...
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Why didn't Japan excise Chinese characters from the Japanese language, when Japan hated China so much?
Can anyone source the history book, written in English that claimed that Japan tried to excise Chinese characters (kanji) from Japanese? Particularly in WW2, at Japan's worst of anti-Chinese hatred ...
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Had anyone envisioned a "wipeout" scenario for Japan in the Pacific for World War II? [closed]
By "anyone," I mean experts such as military or political leaders contemporaneously, or professional historians in retrospect.
By "wipeout," I mean a scenario in which Japan sinks ...
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How possible was it for Japan to convert her naval aircraft to land uses?
Some years ago, I created a World War II computer game in which I obtained interesting results by having Japan use her naval aviation (the planes that fought at Coral Sea, Midway, and elsewhere in the ...
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Is the Tokai Maru the ship that rescued many refugees from the 'Smyrna catastrophe' in 1922 or is it named Tokei Maru instead?
I found this article claiming that a Japanese Ship named "Tokei Maru" has rescued many Greek and Armenian refugees from Turkish onslaught at Smyrna in 1922.
Therefore, I wanted to know more ...
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What led Chiang Kai-shek to do a U-turn against the Japanese?
The Japanese feel that Western countries are unfair in imposing the status quo on Japan and calling it “peace.” Their whole conception
of diplomatic machinery and collective security is that it is ...
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Could the "Taffy" Groups have been reinforced by air during the battle of Leyte Gulf?
During the Battle for Leyte Gulf, most elements of the American fleet fought two "side" groups of the Japanese fleet to the south and north of the main action, which would take place off ...
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Is there anything to back up Mearsheimer's claims that Roosevelt pushed the Japanese to attack the United States and tried to get the US into WW2?
In this video at 1:20:05 (and a little bit of the part preceding it), Mearsheimer claims that Roosevelt "was deeply committed" to get the United States into the second world war and "...
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What did Japan do during the Siberian expedition to insure the creation of a buffer state or acquire territory?
Japan's motives in the Siberian Intervention were complex and poorly
articulated. Overtly, Japan (as with the United States and the other
international coalition forces) was in Siberia to safeguard ...
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Which part of Japanese air forces fought in Burma and how much was destroyed?
My current understanding of WW2 involving Japan is that US forces destroyed the brunt of Japanese air and naval forces in the Pacific.
I know however that land battles occurred on large scale in Burma ...
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Could Japan buy natural resources from European colonies before WW2?
Internationally, this was a time when "free trade" was in disrepute.
The great powers not only jealously protected their special economic
rights within their colonies and spheres of ...
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Why was the Red Army successful against the Japanese in 1939 but perform poorly against Finland 1939-40 and early part of WW2?
The Soviet Union's Red Army had great difficulty overcoming the vastly outnumbered Finns in the 1939-40 Winter War, and suffered disastrous defeats in the early stages of the German invasion in World ...
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Could Japan have won WW2 without interservice rivalry? [closed]
Interservice Rivalry discusses the rivalry between the Japanese army and navy and I have listened to a video which says that a naval plane landing at a army air base would not be serviced, for example....
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Did Japanese officers refuse to engage in kamikaze attacks?
The Kamikaze is a military tactic that appeared officially in Japan's forces in 1944. This was used first by some officers, and then became more and more widespread.
My understanding of the Japanese ...
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Why were some German and Japanese cities bombed more than others during WW2? Is there a scientific consensus?
I'm trying to study the long-run effects the strategic bombing of German and Japanese cities had on urban and economic development.
Reading some articles about it I get contradictory information about ...
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Initial Japanese success in WWII? [closed]
We all know about Pearl Harbor. But I’m curious how Imperial Japan managed to take Guam, Wake, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and China. The only reason I can think of to explain these conquests were ...
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Is Japanese democracy an isolated example? [closed]
There is something peculiar about the current Japanese political system: it is a democratic system which was imposed upon Japan by an invading foreign country (USA, in this case) which remained as a ...
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Why was the US so pro-China and so anti-Japan before WW2?
There is little doubt that the US embargoes on Japan pushed an already aggressive Japan towards Pearl Harbor. Japanese Navy doctrine had already been contemplating a conflict with the US and this ...
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Does city-specific economic data for the pre-WW2 decades exist for Japan and Germany? How do I find out?
I'd like to the an analysis using historical economic data of Japan and Germany.
For that I'm trying to figure out, if data exists from before 1945 of economic production in different japanese and ...
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How did East Indies oil lose its "top billing" in the Pacific War as the war went on?
The road to Pearl Harbor appeared to begin with the American embargo of oil (and other items) in July 1941. The Japanese decided that they had to 1) cripple the American Pacific fleet and 2) obtain ...
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How were Japanese elite divisions defeated? [closed]
During the early months of the involvement of Japan in World War 2, Japanese land armies performed well against British, American and other Allied (Filipino, Dutch) troops. From my research, on books ...
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What was the timetable for the arrival of the 100,000 man Japanese garrison at Rabaul?
Early in 1942, the Japanese seized the natural port of Rabaul on New Britain Island. This was to protect its existing base at Truk, in the Carolines, and also to provide a forward base for operations ...
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Were any Japanese defendants at the far east war criminal trials after WW2 IQ tested by the allies?
Since the Americans tested the IQ of the defendants of the Nuremberg trials I was wondering if there was an analogous deed done to the Japanese war criminals after the WW2.
I can't find anything ...
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Could the Japanese garrison at Rabaul have fed itself if it had been spread out over New Britain Island instead of being concentrated at Rabaul?
Early in 1942, Japan seized the fine port at Rabaul on New Britain Island. They later concentrated around 100,000 men at Rabaul, many of whom starved after the Allies encircled and blockaded the base ...
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Did the "unexpectedness" of key events argue against a "third strike" at Pearl Harbor?
Japan's Admiral Nagumo has been criticized for not launching a "third strike" at Pearl Harbor, specifically to destroy the dry docks, fuel stores, repair facilities and other key ...
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What ship is this in Sasebo, Japan Harbor, Korean War Era?
Identification of Ship in Sasebo, Japan Harbor, Korean War Era from my Flickr page
https://www.flickr.com/photos/photolibrarian/51241341355/in/dateposted-public/
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Was Anti-Japaneseism a real political ideology?
According to a page on Wikipedia, there was a movement in the Japanese New Left called "Anti-Japaneseism", which claimed that
"The nation called Japan and the entire Japanese race ...
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What was the basis of the calendar during Japan's Edo period?
I couldn't find a proper answer on the internet, every article refers to the timeline using the Gregorian calendar.
But I'm guessing Japan didn't use this method given the fact that they weren't ...
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During the defense of the home islands, what was Japan's plan for its forces off-island?
It's July 1945. Okinawa is lost. Japan is preparing for an Allied invasion of the Home Islands. While they're arming civilians with spears and clubs, Japan still had millions of soldiers in Manchuria, ...
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Were kamikaze pilots an effective strategy for Japan?
history.howstuffworks.com claims kamikaze pilots were not overly effective. Wikipedia states that there was no noticeable increase in number of ships lost even as kamikaze pilots became more common, ...
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Where can I find the calls made between Kita Ikki and the rebels in the Japanese February 26 incident?
While reading about the February 26 Incident I learnt that Kita Ikki knew of it and provided some support to the coup by phone. A documentary about Asian 20th century history contains a small portion ...
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Which operation came last in World War 2? [closed]
Which operation came last in World War 2?
I know that the Kwantung Army was defeated on the 2nd of September 1945 during the Soviet Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation (9th of August - 2nd of ...
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What is the context of the use of injustice/unrightousness (不義/fugi) in WW2 era Japanese propaganda?
The Imperial Japanese military song Nihon Rikugun (日本陸軍) begins with the line "天に代わりて不義を討つ" ("defeat injustice in place of righteousness").
What exactly did they consider 不義/fugi ...
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What is the story of this kamon?
I see that you have a lot of knowledge and I have been looking for information for several years. Do you know the story of this kamon? It is worn by my wife's family. It's Maruni ken Hanabishi; it is ...
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Why did no one take Siberia over before the Russians, and how did they do it?
I realize that Russia had ambitions in the east and they took over Siberia. However Siberia was just north of the Mongols really and its islands were easily accessible to Japan in history. They even ...
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What caused the decline of Buddhism in Japan? [closed]
I'm trying to find fairly detailed information on the causes of the decline of Buddhism in Japan. The most detailed information I could find so far is Wikipedia, but it doesn't appear to go too in-...
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What did Japanese architecture look like with heavy materials such as stone, mortar and clay?
In the Wikipedia article on Japanese architecture, it says in the Heian era, and I quote, "Heavy materials like stone, mortar and clay were abandoned as building elements, with simple wooden ...
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How common were fires in pre-Edo Japan?
It is well known that Edo-era Japan had many fires, but I want to focus on something else.
I cannot seem to find much information on fires in Japan before Edo. For example, when I google "feudal ...
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Were there high-ranking Japanese POW as witness at the Trinity Atomic Bomb Test? [closed]
One argument was that providing a demonstration on an unpopulated island ran the risk of failure in front of Japanese observers. But I have not read any suggestion of using a Japanese POW of high ...
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