Questions tagged [japan]
An island country in the western Pacific, located east of the Asian mainland.
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Was Heisuke Yanagawa really censored out in photos, and why?
Heisuke Yanagawa (柳川 平助) was an IJA Lieutenant General who commanded one of the main armies in the Battle of Nanking. He would have been one of the generals photographed marching into Nanking. I've ...
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How common were duels in Tokugawa Japan?
It is my understanding that during Tokugawa era Japan, Samurai could and would occasionally engage in duels to the death. But how often? Do we know from any record keeping how common deadly duels were?...
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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 ...
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How did life for commoners in Okinawa change with the Satsuma invasion?
In 1609, the kingdom of Ryukyu which covers what is today known as Okinawa, was invaded by the Japanese Satsuma clan.
How did this affect the everyday life of commoners (Everybody not noble or a ...
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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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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
user38443
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Did each clan in Sengoku Japan have a specialty or distinctive way of war?
I know that the regions of Iga and Koga bred soldiers that excelled at guerilla warfare, The Takeda cavalry, The Otomo and Oda for their guns.
Were there other daimyo who were known for the way they ...
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How many samurai warriors were there during the Sengoku period?
I was trying to estimate the number of warriors who were part of the samurai class. I am mainly interested in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Trying to search for that, I came across this. It states ...
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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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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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What are the circumstances that lead to Kondou being the sole Shinsengumi leader?
After the assassination of Serizawa Kamo, this left Kondou and Tonouchi as the remaining faction leaders. From what I understand, Tonouchi knew or even helped Kondou get rid of Serizawa but, then, ...
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What was the Chinese impact on Japanese culture and the arts after ~1750?
What significant and subtle impacts has China had on Japanese social dynamics and the arts from ~1750 to the early nineteen hundreds?
If at all possible include dates on which changes happened ...
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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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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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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 ...
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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 ...
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What role, if any, did the Chinese Communist Party play in the Soviet invasion of Xinjiang?
The Soviets invaded Xinjiang to support their client, a warlord who had no connection to the CCP.
Did the CCP support this invasion? Oppose it? Or just try to avoud talking about it?
Related: were ...
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Did the The Fiend/Monster with 21 Faces produce mass hysteria in Japan?
According to the Wikipedia entry of the Monster with 21 Faces (also named as "Fiend" in some sources), it started just after the very publicized Glico Morinaga case and it
... captured the ...
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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 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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When did 石井 四郎 (Shirō Ishii) start medical school?
石井 四郎 (Shirō Ishii) was a surgeon in the Japanese Army, making the rank of General and earned the Order of the Golden Kite, Fourth Class. He committed war crimes, but made a deal with the U.S. to give ...
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How accurate was the depiction of the Japanese Canadian community in the movie Vancouver Asahi?
In the movie "Vancouver Asahi", it is shown that
Japanese Canadians in Vancouver lived in their ethnic neighborhood and did not mingle with white Canadians at work.
second generation "Nisei" people ...
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A bronze reservoir in Osaka
George Lensen's "The Russian Push Toward Japan", 1959, cites Okamoto Ryunosuke, "Nichi-Ro kosho Hokkaido shiko", 1898, to say:
Matsudaira Sadanobu states that guns for defenses must be of bronze. ...
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What was the significance of Bitchu-Takamatsu Castle from a military/political perspective?
What was a strategic intention for building Bitchu-Takamatsu Castle?
Its placement in a swamp, in a basin surrounded by mountains might on three sides made the castle impregnable, but also quite ...
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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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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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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 ...
user60297
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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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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 ...
