As I was going through my pictures deciding on this week’s article, I stumbled across some older pictures from shortly after I had gotten my first DSLR camera. As I got more into photography, I started taking my camera…
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It’s been fun working on this blog the past year but one of the things that’s bugged me is format limitations. I think of the blog as a place for telling stories and want to keep it easy to find…
First and Last Target: Yawata Steel Works
Many places in Japan suffered repeat bombings in World War II but one had the dubious distinction of being the first and among the last hit by B-29s. On the night of June 15/16, 1944, the then-Imperial Steel Works gained…
Kawasaki’s Premier Folk Museum – Nihon Minkaen
A couple months ago I wrote about the number of folk museums in Japan and old buildings that the Japanese have preserved from their history. The best of these folk museums that I have found so far is a…
Atlantikwall
Today’s video takes us to a forbidding section of the Atlantic Wall, Nazi Germany’s coastal defense scheme that saw artillery batteries, bunkers and other defensive fixtures dot the seaside from Norway to France to keep out any potential liberating forces.…
Lost in Time – Forgotten Relics of War
We are traveling again for the New Year, so this week’s article is a brief look at something a friend of mine and I found hiking near Zushi, Kanagawa. An acquaintance who lives in the area told me there…
Shaking the Heavens from Below: Ozushima Kaiten Memorial Museum
The sky was clear of enemy aircraft on the morning of Nov. 20, 1944 at Ulithi, the American anchorage and resupply base that kept the fleet moving towards victory over Tokyo in the latter part of the Pacific War. Fleet…
A Recent History of Japanese Aviation: The Hamamatsu JASDF Museum
Some time ago, shortly after we started this blog, I wrote about the underwhelming castle in Hamamatsu. As I mentioned then, there is a lot more to see in Hamamatsu, and things that are more worth seeing. One of those…
Bansei: The Phantom Kamikaze Peace Museum
Today people come to Minami Satsuma’s Fukiage Sand Dune for fun and relaxation. At 50 kilometers long, it’s one of Japan’s three biggest dunes and every year hosts a competition that does for sand what Hokkaido does for snow. That’s…
One of the Last American Great War Army Combat Veterans is French
Unfortunately this tank has moved and the museum has apparently closed. When Frank Buckles passed away in 2011, with him went the last first-hand accounts an American Soldier could give of World War I. He was the last living doughboy.…