Japan Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

100-Day Countdown To Tokyo Olympics Begins, And Northwest Athletes Are Ready To Go

By Tom Banse April 13, 2021

Galen Rupp of Portland qualified for his fourth Olympics by winning the U.S. Olympic Marathon Team Trials last year. Here he is at the 2016 Olympic Track and Field Team Trials. CREDIT: Tom Banse/N3

The 100-day countdown to the opening ceremony of the rescheduled 2020 Tokyo Olympics begins Wednesday. Yes, the summer games are proceeding amid an ongoing global pandemic. Olympic hopefuls and Pacific Northwest athletes already picked for Team USA invariably said they are eager to go.Read More

Past As Prologue: ‘What Is An American?’ Asks A Soldier From Pasco Whose Family Was Interned

By NWPB News January 1, 2021

Yamauchi’s family settled in Pasco in 1907. His parents, Harry and Chieka Yamauchi, came to the Tri Cities with their oldest daughter, Lou and had a total of nine children.

In this installment of the "Past as Prologue" series comes the story of a U.S. soldier, Sgt. George Yamauchi , from Pasco. He asked in 1943: 'What is an American?' Yamauchi penned the question in the local newspaper after his family was persecuted. The question defining who is an American is as relevant today as it was then. Read More

‘Tidying Up The Past’: Pandemic House Cleanings Yield Offers To Return WWII Souvenirs

By Tom Banse August 29, 2020

U.S. Marines posed with a captured Japanese flag on Iwo Jima. CREDIT: National Archives, USMC #112350

Aging veterans and their descendants are attempting to return memorabilia to the families of their former enemies ahead of a milestone anniversary. Next Wednesday, September 2, marks 75 years to the day since the Japanese surrender ceremony that ended World War II.Read More

An Atomic Bomb Survivor On Her Journey From Revenge To Peace

By NPR News August 9, 2020

Koko Kondo at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, Japan, on August 5, 2020. Kondo was determined to get revenge on the person who dropped the atomic bomb on her city. Then, she met him. CREDIT: Eugene Hoshiko/AP

It's been 75 years since the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks to Koko Kondo, who was an infant when one of those bombs was dropped on Hiroshima.Read More

75 Years After Bombings, Tri-Cities Musician’s Jazz Album Explores Complicated Hanford History

By Courtney Flatt August 5, 2020

Denin Koch's "re: manhattan project" album officially launched Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020, 75 years after the U.S. dropped a bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.

Denin Koch's trip to the Hanford B Reactor when he was 19 stirred his musical passion. It eventually inspired a full jazz album exploring the complicated history of Hanford, 75 years after the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan ended WWII.Read More

California Lawmakers Expected To Apologize For U.S. Internment Of Japanese Americans

By NPR News February 21, 2020

During a visit to the California Museum in Sacramento, Les Ouchida holds a 1943 photo of himself (front row center) and his siblings taken at the internment camp in Jerome, Ark., that his family was moved to from their home near Sacramento in 1942. CREDIT: Rich Pedroncelli/AP

The bill's sponsor says he was "disturbed by the striking parallels" between the treatment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and current U.S. immigration policy.Read More

In Visit To Hiroshima, Pope Francis Says Possession Of Nuclear Weapons Is ‘Immoral’

By NPR News November 24, 2019

Pope Francis observes a minute of silence in memory of the victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima during his visit to the city's Peace Memorial Park on Sunday. CREDIT: Carl Court/Getty Images

The nuclear arms race wastes resources that could instead improve people's lives and protect the environment, the pontiff said. His tour marks the first papal visit to Japan in nearly 40 years.Read More

Plastic’s New Threat: Indestructible Rafts For Ocean-Crossing Invasive Species

By NWPB News August 2, 2019

Marine organisms like these gooseneck barnacles are crossing the Pacific Ocean to North America by hitching rides on floating debris composed of man-made materials — mostly plastic. Courtesy of Russ Lewis

The 2011 earthquake and tsunami that ravaged Fukushima, Japan, also triggered tsunami warnings for our coastlines here in the Pacific Northwest. And while the resulting waves did not turn out to be catastrophic when they reached our local shores, those same forces delivered a wake-up call.Read More