Join us for a fascinating in-person talk with Dr Nadine Willems organised by the East Centre at the University of East Anglia, and explore the side of Japan’s Siberian Intervention that is not often discussed. Tues 30 Apr, Earlham Hall 0.12, UEA, 17:30 - 19:00

An uplifting review of my book about Ishikawa Sanshirō. Thank you Robert Kramm for the thoughtful take on "Geographical Imagination," highlighting the prescient and visionary nature of Ishikawa's anarchism. Available open access: nichibun.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/2000...

A welcome accolade for Japan's Russia, edited by Sho Konishi and Olga Solovieva! Thank you ICAS for recognising the merits of our innovative approach to the intellectual history of modern Japan. My chapter concerns poets' visions of the North. www.iias.asia/sites/iias/f...

University of East Anglia is happy to sponsor applications for Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships for 2024, in Arts and Hums. I always wanted to work here, and so far it hasn’t disappointed!

More details here: uea.ac.uk/web/about/work…

Spent today reading accounts of the firebombing of Toyama on Aug 1, 1945, which destroyed 98% of the city center

Almost all of these accounts mention how survivors escaped the flames by jumping into the Jinzu River

The same Jinzu River that in the 1960s spread Itai Itai disease across the land

Enomoto Ken’ichi (榎本健一), aka Enoken, one of Japan's biggest vaudeville/film stars, on losing his home in Omori in the April 15, 1945 raid on Tokyo: