Absolutely incredible.

NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman, who commanded Artemis II, took this footage from the far side of the Moon with his iPhone.

Watch with sound on.

Take a trip down to the crossroads...

Excellent analysis of this incompetent, rogue administration's mess in the Persian Gulf.

I created a deep linked and searchable table of contents index for issues of the prewar "Japan Magazine" found on Internet Archive, with over 200 issues and several thousand articles. Useful for history students working only with English sources:

froginawell.net/indexes/japa...

#japan

Charming timeline cleanse. 🥰

America’s Future Is Hungary MAGA conservatives love Viktor Orbán. But he’s left his country corrupt, stagnant, and impoverished.

In honor of Vance's visit to Hungary, where he will campaign for Viktor Orban, I am reposting my article from last year. I argued that Orban's Hungary is one of the poorest countries, and certainly the most corrupt and least free country, in the entire EU.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Did Trump Just Threaten to Use Nuclear Weapons in Iran? If such an order comes to pass, the military can and must refuse.

If Trump does give an order to attack civilian targets that have no military value as a means of collectively punishing the Iranian people - and make good his threat to begin a genocide - Marco Rubio should resign and the military must refuse the order.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

The color changing is amazing but what always gets me is they make their body’s texture look like rocks and coral. Fascinating.

IG: ibrahim.elhariry

A good MA program will orientate you to the historiography of your chosen field and provide a level of professionalization that should prove useful in pursuing further research and writing on your own. But that seems very pricey; but then I earned my MA in another era at a local public university.

Hegseth’s War on America’s Military Someone needs to explain the Pentagon purges to the American people.

Someone needs to tell the American people what's going on in the Pentagon, and it obviously won't be Pete Hegseth, who is at war with America's senior military officers. My latest:

www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Congratulations!

資料で読み解くアジア主義 スヴェン・サーラ(編著) - 三和書籍 本書は、東アジアにおける約150年の「アジア主義」の思想的展開を、思想家・政治家・活動家らの一次史料を通じて解明するものである。 日本のアジア主義者のみならず、中国・韓国・トルコ・インド・… - 引用：版元ドットコム

Selected chapters from Pan-Asianism: A Documentary History 2 vols. (2011) have come out in Japanese translation.

www.hanmoto.com/bd/isbn/9784...

If you’ve never heard of Operation Earnest Will

Now would be a good time👇

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operati...

I take it you don't, either? It appears to be a set with idealizing the young officers, i.e., mutinous assassins/terrorists. He's a smart, knowledgeable historian--including 2.26--but he loses me on this (but not in other areas, e.g., 教養主義、軍部大臣現役武官制). I'll have to read the Hirayama essay.

Exhibiting JAPAN: The Japan Pavilions at the New York World's Fairs in 1939-1940 and 1964-1965 Exhibiting Japan explores Japan’s national pavilions at the 1939-40 and 1964-65 New York World’s Fairs, examining how the country presented itself at two of the most iconic cultural events of the 20th...

Wow, wish I'd had this when I was writing about the Japanese Pavilion at the New York World's Fair! www.historyofjapaneseinny.org/exhibiting-j...

Incidentally, this page includes a link to a brief historiographical essay by Tsutsui related to court-martial records (plus the catalog of the records).

j-dac.jp/MJPH/MJPH_ka...

I'm sorry if I cause a misunderstanding. Those comments are directed at the Wikipedia entry alone, and not at all at you. It's fine to share Wikipedia entries. It's good that you read the Japanese ones because, in areas such as this, they tend to be better (though not without problems).

Yonai then served as navy minister in the Koiso and Suzuki cabinets, but not as navy chief of staff (another error in the entry). In fact, Shimada being both navy minister and chief of staff, mirroring Tojo doing similarly in the army, was another problem that crystallized the opposition to Tojo.

What Yonai did was refuse Tojo's entreaties to join the cabinet as a state minister, insisting he'd only serve as navy minister, which Tojo didn't desire. Yonai, along with retired admiral and former premier Okada Keisuke, led the navy's role in getting Tojo to resign.

If you'll indulge me, I'll wag my finger at Wikipedia, whose account of Shimada's resignation is wrong in presenting it as simply Tojo forcing him out at Hirohito's request, when it resulted from an intra-elite strategy to force Tojo to resign. And Shimada was replaced by Nomura Naokuni, not Yonai.

You're most welcome; glad to be useful.

You should write something. There's plenty of room for a new look at that coup attempt, and other incidents, particularly in English. I go into some detail on aspects of the Ketsumeidan and 15 May Incidents (mostly the former) in my book manuscript.

The only one on 2.26 is a taidan with Tsutsui Kiyotada and Takasugi Yohei, which is so-so (Tsutsui is pushing his "populism" view, which doesn't do much for me). The one with Furukawa Takahisa & Kurosawa Fumitaka on the Tsuboshima & Hyakutake diaries is more worthwhile. I've yet to read the others.

No, it's not Yonai. I'd say that's Navy Minister Shimada Shigetaro, who was widely disliked in the navy for being Tojo's yes-man; Yonai helped force Shimada out of office as part of maneuvers to bring down Tojo's cabinet in July 1944.

二・二六事件　まとめ｜戦争｜NHKアーカイブス 1936年（昭和11年）2月26日、「二・二六事件」が発生しました。陸軍の青年将校らが天皇中心の軍事政権をめざし、高橋是清大蔵大臣をはじめ重要閣僚ら9人を殺害。日本の中枢を4日間にわたり占拠しました。 この事件を機に軍部の力が拡大し、日本は太平洋戦争へと突き進んだといわれています。歴史の転換点となったこの事件を 戦争証言アーカイブス に残された資料で振り返ります。

I was recently looking at an NHK page with links to videos and interviews, including with Suzuki Taka, who witnessed the severe wounding of her husband Grand Chamberlain Suzuki Kantaro, and with enlisted men who were caught up in the coup attempt.

www2.nhk.or.jp/archives/art...

Strategic Bombing and the Pop History Problem Reviewing Malcom Gladwell’s “The Bomber Mafia”

I recently received “The Bomber Mafia” as a birthday gift (heh). It was bad, so bad that I believe it cannot be read as a reliable account of strategic bombing in World War II. In so many ways, it demonstrates the worst tendencies of the “pop history” genre. My review (and latest)⬇️

For those with an interest in Japan’s decision to surrender who also read Japanese, here is a link to an interesting new review essay by Nakatani Tadashi (Teikyo University).

roles.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp/uploads/publ...

中央公論 2026年3月号｜最新号｜中央公論.jp 【 特集 】昭和天皇と戦争──二・二六事件90年の冬 〔対談〕反軍ムード、ポピュ...

Those interested in Emperor Hirohito and the war may find the March edition of Chuo Koron worthwhile.

chuokoron.jp/chuokoron/la...

Poster and abstract for Atsuko Shigesawa (Kobe City University of Foreign Studies) presentation in the MIT History Asia in Dialogue seminar series on 2/19/2026 at 5pm in E51-285: "Reframing the Japanese Mind on the Atomic Bomb: The US Strategic Bombing Survey and its Counterfactual Conclusion." Abstract: "In July 1946, the US Strategic Bombing Survey—a group of analysts led by a civilian board of directors appointed by the Secretary of War—concluded that: “…Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated” (hereinafter, “counterfactual conclusion”). Since then, it has been cited by critics of the US administration’s decision to use the new weapon. In 1995, two historians challenged this conclusion by scrutinizing evidence: interrogations of Japanese leaders. Examining the counterfactual narrative only within the framework of the interrogations, however, misses the significance of the Survey’s studies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Five of its 15 study divisions devoted substantial time and resources to studying the effects of the atomic bomb. How do the results of these studies intertwine with the conclusion? Did they contribute in any way to its formation? This presentation scrutinizes the transition of the Morale Division's manuscripts and final report in an attempt to answer these questions."

***Next Week at MIT!***
Atsuko Shigesawa (Kobe City University of Foreign Studies) in the MIT History Asia in Dialogue seminar series on 2/19/2026 at 5pm in E51-285: "Reframing the Japanese Mind on the Atomic Bomb: The US Strategic Bombing Survey and its Counterfactual Conclusion."

I've likely heard it since then, too, but it's very much associated with those years, particularly when paired with that album cover (my brother probably still has it along with all our other ones). Thanks for jogging the memory.