‘A CD is $10. If you buy a CD, you get a ticket to a handshake or a photo together. I spend at least $2,000 a month.’ ibid. old man
‘Otaku are becoming mainstream.’ ibid. commentator
AKB48, Japan’s most popular idol band holds an election every year. ibid.
‘If they were older, they wouldn’t interest me.’ ibid. old man
Japanese general Hideki Tojo is a cold-blooded control freak responsible for millions of deaths. In this pursuit of ultimate power he fights the dirtiest war ever known. This is the story of the Japanese leader responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor, an Asian holocaust and the torture of POWs. Evolution of Evil s1e4: Hideki Tojo, ZDF 2015
His methods involve intimidation and torture. ibid.
Tojo is rewarded with command of Japan’s military police. ibid.
This belief gives the Imperial Japanese army the right to invade China. ibid.
Burn all. Loot all. Kill all. ibid.
Tojo’s potent brew of Japanese nationalism and racist ideology picked up from the Nazis. ibid.
Starving, torturing, murdering at will. ibid.
The Battle of Midway strips Japan of its naval dominance in the Pacific. ibid.
Pearl Harbor: Japan had already been at war for more than a decade … there had been little peace for the island nation. Secrets of War s1e53: Hirohito’s War, 2000
Hirohito was born at the dawn of the new century on April 29th 1901, the 124th emperor in the imperial line. ibid.
In excess of 200,000 people were slaughtered during the occupation of the city. The Rape of Nanking came to symbolize the brutality of the Japanese army. ibid.
Japan had established a network of spies throughout the world. ibid.
An exotic world of shimmering beauty and sudden death, a place where honour means more than life itself. In Search of History s3e6: Samurai Warrior, History 1996
Tradition here prizes grace, tranquillity and harmony with nature but tradition also celebrates the fierce warriors of Japan the Samurai; their era lasted for more than a thousand years only ending in the middle of the nineteenth century. ibid.
History’s most effective and terrifying warriors. ibid.
There was nothing remarkable about women holding samurai status. ibid.
The Land of the Rising Sun, but we know it by a different name. Japan has fascinated me since I was a boy. It’s always seemed like a parallel universe ... I’ll seek out its greatest art works both old and new. But this is also a journey into Japanese life. James Fox, The Art of Japanese Life I: Nature, BBC 2018
These artists continue to work with Nature, to revere it and to draw inspiration from the landscape that surrounds them. ibid.
This is Nachi Falls. It’s one of the tallest waterfalls in Japan. ibid.
Ritual is at the heart of Shintoism … Nature itself is being venerated … Its influence can be felt right through the history of Japanese art. ibid.
This is The Splashed Ink Landscape. Sesshu painted it in 1495. ibid.
Another art form that combines nature and culture: these are of course Bonsai. ibid.
The preoccupation with cherry blossom is part of a broader set of interests: Japanese culture celebrates all of the seasons, not simply the spring. ibid.
Irises: a pair of six-panel screens dating back to 1710. ibid.
Hokusai’s success came slowly; he’s best known for his woodcut prints … the diversity of his output was breathtaking. ibid.
At exactly 8.15 an American bombadier above them pulled a lever. The commuters may have seen a flash of light but within seconds they and the city of Hiroshima were engulfed in the largest man-made explosion in history. James Fox, The Art of Japanese Life II: Cities
The history of Japanese cities is the history of their destruction. ibid.
Some of the most dynamic places in the world. ibid.
They helped mould the very idea of Japan itself. ibid.
Kyoto was the blueprint for a utopia. ibid.
Utamaro was a master of understatement. ibid.
As Japan changed the West so the West changed Japan. ibid.
Tokyo was changing in other ways. A huge programme of construction and industrialisation was underway. ibid.
Japan and Tokyo in particular has become a creative hub of food, fashion, film, consumer electronics, computer games and many other forms of popular culture. ibid.
Kusama has been creating her own brand of pop art since the 1960s. ibid.
This little bento box is almost like a work of art … almost too beautiful to eat. James Fox, The Art of Japanese Life III: Home
In Japan much of domestic life is informed by aesthetics. ibid.
Rinshunkaku is a lesson in domestic design. ibid.
Many Japanese people are obsessed with flower arranging. ibid.
Central banks have the power to create economic, political and social change. Princes of the Yen: Central Banks and the Transformation of the Economy, 2014
Kabuki plays featuring loyal samurai were banned or heavily censored; as were books or films about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; satirical cartoons of [General] MacArthur and mention of occupation censorship were strictly forbidden. ibid.
In 1957 the former Class A war crimes suspect Kishi Nobusuke became prime minister of Japan. ibid.
With money from crime syndicates, industrial corporations and CIA slush funds Kishi built the Liberal Democratic Party into a powerful political machine. ibid.
In one area the ministry did not have actual control, and that was the quantity of credit creation and its allocation, which was decided by the Japanese Central Bank, the Bank of Japan. ibid.
The Bank of Japan could dictate the number and value of loans that banks issued. ibid.
The credit boom caused not only a boom in real estate but also in the stock market. ibid.
Like all bubbles, the Japanese bubble was simply fuelled by the rapid creation of new money. ibid.
More than five million Japanese lost their jobs and did not find employment elsewhere. ibid.
By 2011 Japan’s government debt would reach 230% of GDP, the highest in the world. ibid.
Banks and their regulators were heavily criticised for their actions. ibid.
In 1988 monetary policy was put into the hands of the newly independent Bank of Japan. ibid.
The deepest recession since the great depression. ibid.
‘The IMF policies are clearly not aimed at creating economic recoveries in the Asian countries … The agenda is clearly to crack open Asia for foreign interests.’ ibid. Richard Werner
‘What you just experienced was a Magnitude 7 earthquake. We don’t know when an earthquake will occur so training and preparation are vital.’ Field of Vision: The Earth is Humming, Japanese simulator, short 13:28 2018
Japan is nestled between Earth’s four tectonic plates. The Japanese government estimates that there is a 70% possibility of an earthquake directly hitting Tokyo within the next thirty years. ibid. caption
Japan’s most powerful earthquake ever triggers a monster tsunami. Fear washes over the nation. But that’s just the beginning: ten nuclear reactors at two power plants are crippled, threatening the unimaginable. Nova: Nuclear Meltdown Disaster aka Fukushima Uncensored, Nova 2015
This is the road to nowhere. A once thriving place in one of the most prosperous countries on Earth. Japan: radioactive Japan. Time stood still here on March 11th 2011. Houses that aren’t homes. Schools that are silent. Stores shuddered. Towns without people. Past the checkpoints, the scans and the meticulous suit-up layer upon layer upon layer of protection is the place we simply know as Fukushima: site of three nuclear reactor meltdowns. ibid.
The largest [in Japan] ever recorded. Magnitude 9. ibid.
‘The shaking was like nothing I’d experienced.’ ibid.
In 2015 there were 24,025 documented suicides in Japan, almost 70 people per day. One of the most popular suicide destinations is Tojinbo Cliffs in Fukui Prefecture. Yung Chang, Gatekeeper, 2016
Man: Well, I’m off.
Wife: Have a good day. ibid.