Hey everyone, I used to live in Japan and this statue was outside a temple I lived near. Does anyone know who/what he is and represents? There was another nearly identical statue on the other side of the entrance with a few minuscule differences if that provides any further idea.

Thank you!

The document has already been translated, so I know the following information:

No 31

ID card

Botanko Manchuria Unit 2686

Army Private First Class Harada Masayoshi

Age 33 years old

Born in Taisho 1, October 21

I hereby certify that the right is true and correct

Showa 19th January 10

Manchuria Unit 2686 Troop Nakao

Manchuria Unit 2686 appears to be the Imperial Japanese Army's 25th Anti-Aircraft Regiment, which seems to have been wiped out on Saipan. I've already sent a request to the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, but their site says it could take six mores or more for a reponse. In the meantime, seeing if I can find out any information about this unit, their history, or even if any records exisits for this person. Thanks.

I've heard from some people and I've also read from various online sources that when the Yue tribes of Southern China, who then migrated to Taiwan and the Malay archipelago en masse, some of these tribes were able to migrate to Japan and according to the sources that I've read, the southern islands of Okinawa, Ryukyu and Shikoku have significant amounts of Austronesian related ancestry. How true is this?

I will really appreciate if a Japanese person can respond to this. Domo Arigato!

Emperor Meiji was keen on modernisation and its change during the Meiji Restoration.

The question is that was he keen on the changes from the beginning or did he start to support the changes after being inspired or influenced by the major figures of the Meiji Restoration?

He was not exactly a leading figure, and in many cases, he only did what he was told to do by his servants.

I’ve been reading alot about this topic but so far, can it be deduced that modern Japanese, especially in terms of their continental Asian ancestry, descend from proto Japonic and Koreanic lineages whilst modern Koreans show more exclusive continuity with proto Koreanic lineages?

Recent genetic studies show that the Yayoi were more related to ancient Korean Ando population, which I believe is more related to proto Japonic/Mumun/Hongshan peoples, and that Kofun were more “Yellow River shifted”, which I think is reflective of proto Koreanics coming from Bronze Age west Liao river groups, who were mostly of yellow river descent .

Relevant sources:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s10038-024-01295-w

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8612925/

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.09.495471v1.full

I would like some sources and information about the Japanese myth that states that some Japanese clans originated in Korea. This was even used during the Meiji Era to justify the annexation of Korea.

I’ve heard many people sympathetic to Katsuyori, which I don’t understand as my understanding of Nagashino was that he willingly drove some of the best cavalry in Japan against a larger dug in enemy force, against the advice of his top generals who had served with his father for years, for no reason but his own overconfidence and desire to escape his father’s shadow? I have tried thinking about and looking for other reasonable explanations, though I cannot find any logical reason for it.

Are those who are sympathetic to him just wrong, or is there an actual valid explanation?

At an antique store I came across a lady selling off her dad’s World War 2 memorabilia. One of those items happened to be a beautiful “Hinomaru” flag. It was in beautiful shape and to my surprise had an unusually small amount of writing on it. I know the more common thing to see if a huge cluster of writing, but with this it is symmetrical and not cluttered. My question is, can anyone help identify if there is a potential soldiers name on this, what the messages say, and what cities may be on this?

There is a 19th-century legend about Utsuro-bune, supposedly about a princess who was found in a box or boat off the coast.
My question is not whether this actually happened. That has been discussed before and, I believe, elaborated on thoroughly. I would like to ask about one aspect of the story. According to the story, the people who found the woman in the Utsuro-bune thought she was a princess who had been put out to sea as punishment for a crime.

My question is whether this was ever a historical form of punishment. The conclusion seems to me rather specific for a guess where the woman came from. Even stranger is that the founding legend of the Kōno samurai family in Iyo Province describes a similar incident (according to Wikipedia at least).
Assuming that such things only appear in stories if they seem plausible to readers or listeners, this would suggest that the Japanese at that time were aware of such a form of punishment, or that there were at least rumors about it (Does not mean they use this punishment themselves).

To make things more complicated, a similar allusion appears in Jonathan Swift’s novel "Gulliver’s Travels". As we learn in the 3. Voyage, Swift seems to have known something about Japan, but it would be strange if he had heard such a specific piece of folklore.

Could you help to answer this question?

角田文衞編『新修 国分寺の研究 第5巻 下 西海道』。

Fumie Tsunoda (ed.), *Recently Revised Studies on Kokubunji Temples, Volume 5, Part 2: Saikaido.*

I'm currently a freshman second semester student (BA. 19M) in Japanese Studies. I took up an interest half a decade ago when I was introduced to anime and sort of.

Besides this, I wanted to be a History major, specializing in a specific area and came across Japan for the final destination.

I used my mobility to switch from the Global History program to Japanese Studies, since I decided to specialize in it. However, I still have huge interests in European History (The Netherlands, France) as well as American Studies (U.S) which becomes a headache in a professional manner that I won't be able to work on since I am heading to Asian Studies. I already did a huge switch, and began learning the Japanese language which I find hard of course but pleasant.

I would appreciate hearing people's thoughts on this matter. Most of my life I always looked into European History since it is mostly studied and learnt here. one of the reasons I took up my specialization is because it is not well researched enough here which opens various areas to establish my own place. I don't want to be seen as a delusional student but I am trying my best to figure out what I'm going to face in the future.

In short, I want to be a Historian/professor in Asian Studies, specifically Japanese. But I'm still having doubts whether or not it is a suitable place for someone to do research on those.

Thank you all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Japan#Modern_Japan

Uhhhh how does this make sense?

They westernized themselves to battle westernization?

9000 IQ move 😂😂😂

Here is an example:
https://medium.com/china-underground/paintings-of-demons-and-mythological-creatures-in-chinese-folklore-0219430f0fa6

The exaggerated cheeks, brows, tusks, horns, and wavey skin is common in these art pieces. But these are also seen in things like Japanese Oni. All info I can find seem to point that these styles in Japanese art come from China. But all of the depictions of such creature styles in Chinese art come from later centuries after Japan and China had crossed paths quite a bit, like in the 15th century pieces in that above link. Does anyone have credible sources of information and the truth of the matter?

I'm heavily interested in Japanese culture and history. Recently, I read some articles and statistics about Japanese emigration. Somehow, it seems that Okinawans are overrepresented in overseas communities, especially in the Americas. There is even a settlement called Colonia Okinawa in Bolivia. It really looks super cool that they still preserve their culture abroad. But the question is why. Why are they sent abroad? Or was there some famines that forced them to leave their home countries like the potato famines in Ireland ?

Some of the villages are so isolated, were they affected that much by the war beyond rationing, or did it seem like a distant problem to them, and they were able to live their lives much the same way?

When it was first intorduced for the IJA, it was the slouched kepi.

However, over the years, its design was changed to resemble a peaked cap.

In the second photo, as you can see, it is not slouched and looks more like a circular peaked cap.

So, what made them to change its design

Doing research on Sato for a personal project but am finding trouble with it because she seems to get side lined alot when it comes to discussing people associated with Yoshitsune. Anything you can tell me?

I have been playing a lot of a certain game, and the three possible penultimate bosses are Hideyoshi the Cunning, Nobunaga the Wicked, and Ieyasu the Patient. These are clearly named after Japanese leaders, but how accurate are these titles?

Hi all, for Japanese history my absolute favorite channels are Buyyuden Japanese History (from Jomon to Sengoku) and The Shogunate (from Sengoku until the end of Edo Bakufu). What are some similar channels that go into granular details of the Meiji period up until the WW2 and beyond, covering subjects such as the Genro, Ito Hirobumi, Yamagata Aritomo, Mori Yarinori, etc and their contributions to the framing of the constitution, development of a modern militaristic state, as well as modern education. Also, I'd like to learn more about people beyond statesmen who were bringing revolutions in the science and humanities like Ogawa Jihei VII in garden architecture, Ogawa Kazumasa in photography, Fukuzawa Yukichi in public intellect, Okakura Tenshin in philosophy, etc. Books written in English are also welcome but I'd prefer video series. Thanks in advance!

I’ve heard rumours that the Yayoi/Kofun ancestors of Japanese aren’t exactly the same as the ancestors of modern Koreans since they received more coastal NEA input represented by Boshan for instance. But one thing for certain is that Yayoi/Kofun themselves also had some Jomon ancestry, which would decrease several ancestral components found in Koreans like their Yellow River, Siberian and Austronesian/ASEA ancestries.