japan

What Was The Last Night Like For Kamikaze Pilots

December 7, 2023

kamikaze pilots

Despite the numerous published testaments, photographs, and films that depict smiling pilots saluting or waving goodbye as they take off on their final mission, a rare description of the night before departure tells a very different story. It occurs in a letter written on June 21, 1995, by Kasuga Takeo, who was eighty-six years old at the time, addressed to Umezawa Shōzō.Kasuga was drafted and assigned to look after the meals, laundry, room cleaning, and other daily tasks for the tokkōtai pilots at the Tsuchiura Naval Air Base. He describes the night before their final flights:

What Are the Downside of Living In Japan?

November 28, 2023

downsides of living in japan

Lots of mindless, pointless paperwork for everything. If you want a new phone contract, for example, come back in two weeks because the phone company had to contact the manager of the branch, who has to contact the district manager, who has to contact the regional manager, who has to contact the president of the company to approve it, and all of them have to hanko (sign via a special stamp) the documents approving you. (This may be slightly exaggerated, but only slightly.)

Did Japanese WW2 Soldiers Suffer From Psychological Effects Of Their War Crimes?

September 25, 2023

Immediately after the war, a large number of medical clinics were set up in Japan to treat wounded Japanese soldiers.

Of approximately 30,000 patients seen in these clinics, around 10,000 of them suffered from mental illnesses, such as “war neurosis.”

The Japanese government did their best to suppress any knowledge of said psychological trauma (indeed a 1938 Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) statement declared how Japanese soldiers did not suffer war neurosis unlike Western soldiers).

For the IJA, “war neurosis” was something that detracted from the “masculinity” of the IJA, and it was utilized and associated with “hysteria,” which was often used as a blanket diagnosis for women in the West.

Cultural Idiosyncrasy of the Day

September 12, 2023

okozukai

In Japan 50% of men give all their money to their wives and get a monthly allowance

In Japan, there’s the salary you get from your company. And if you are a married man, there’s the salary you get from your wife. It’s called “okozukai”, which is sometimes translated as “pocket money”. Think of it as a husband salary.

What Happened In Nanjing In 1937?

August 2, 2023

rape of nanking

After the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, the aggressive and disciplined Japenees troops had already managed to take Shanghai, and had just taken the city of Nanking (Nanjing), the capital of Nationalist China. With a retreat of Chinese forces the Japanese took the city with relative ease.

What’s It Like To Get Arrested In Japan?

July 5, 2023

I’m not a violent or evil man. I’ve paid all my taxes, never got into fights, never joined gangs, reported found wallets, helped the disabled, etc. Didn’t even drink till I was 20!

Arrest to the station:

As I was going to work, a guy stopped me and asked me if I was (my name). I told him yes. He told me he was with customs. Then 5-6 guys surrounded me as to prevent me from fleeing. Another guy came up to me and showed me a search warrant (later fond out he was the leader of the search party). I had to oblige as I thought saying no would just make things worse.

Picture of the Day

July 5, 2023

In Japan you can hire actors to pose as short/longterm spouses, children, friends, etc. A man was hired to pose as a girl’s missing father by her mother for over 8 years without his “daughter” knowing

37-year-old Ishii Yuichi is a father to over 25 families and a husband to over 600 women – but none of them are his real family members.

Together with the 1,200 actors he employs at his company Family Romance, he has played every part from stand-in father for a wedding, missing dad to long lost son and even make-believe groom in his job as a companion for hire.

[Read more…] about Picture of the Day

What Is Flirting Like In Japan?

April 12, 2023

fliriting in japan

(Photo by takahiro taguchi)

Flirting seems like a misnomer. It’s more like an absense of flirting. If you like someone in Japan, there are a couple of different ways of showing it and/or approaching them, none of which really resemble flirting in the west.

Why Do Japanese Homes Lose All Their Value After 15 Years?

April 7, 2023

Japanese homes only last an average of 30 years, and lose all of their value after 15. As a result, rather than being an investment that a family can build equity in, Japanese homewoners scrimp and save only to see what is often their life’s biggest investment lose 1/15th of its value each year. How did this come to be?

After WW2, the Japanese slapped together a lot of crudely built homes to house its population.

Those home were so shoddy that they didn’t have much resale value, years later, as it was actually cheaper to tear them down and rebuild them than to repair them. And that became kind of a “thing,” in Japan.

How Effective Were Kamikaze Attacks In WW2?

April 4, 2023

By 1944 suicide attacks had become de facto conventional air attacks for most Japanese pilots attacking American naval task forces.

For example, the Battle of the Philippine Sea justly earned the nickname the “Marianas Turkey Shoot” because the Japanese air units lost over five-hundred aircraft attacking the US fleet with only minor damage to the USS South Dakota to show for their efforts.

japan

In Japan 50% of men give all their money to their wives and get a monthly allowance

Arrest to the station:

In Japan you can hire actors to pose as short/longterm spouses, children, friends, etc. A man was hired to pose as a girl’s missing father by her mother for over 8 years without his “daughter” knowing

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