Fun story this morning. I spoke with Curtis Evans, the retired Marine in the viral photo below who took part in the anti-ICE protest at Broadview. He's a thoughtful guy, well read and with a dry sense of humor. Story @taskandpurpose.com taskandpurpose.com/news/marine-...

Flights have been halted to Copenhagen Airport after multiple drones were spotted over the Øresund Strait, Reuters reports.

question for Pacific War historians: I'm looking for reliable figures on the number of Allied airmen captured in Japan or the Pacific theater more broadly. I've seen 568 mentioned in passing a few places, but can't find a credible source. Any ideas on where I can find one?

ghibli does its homework

For our October issue I wrote about the Roberts Court for its 20th anniversary, how it helped lead us to the current crisis, and what should be done about it:

I mean, we are living in two different realities now, and this really hasn't always been the case.

ghibli does its homework

New research finds that smoke from wildfires has caused more than 41,000 deaths annually from 2011 to 2020. "By our calculation, this is one of the most important climate impacts in the U.S." By Tony Briscoe @latimes.com www.latimes.com/environment/... @coveringclimatenow.org

The clown show that passes as immigration policy these days. Impulsive illegal policy change motivated by racism--> immediate backlash + furious lobbying by constituent parties --> piecemeal carve outs = utter confusion and fear.

The clear implication is that the clips in the montage are of “our warriors” but there are several foreign militaries in it. -Italian Army Ariete C1 tank -Swedish Gripen fighter -Spanish Air and Space Force A400M Grizzly transport. Sloppy and incompetent, so about what you would expect.

OK, there are just too many good caricatures of FDR & co. in this magazine not to make this a running thread. You've seen demon, you've seen ogre, but have you seen monstrous whale? Titled "Quite a catch, Let's Go!" from Sept. 1944 issue

The little caption is pretty clever linguistically 美味そうな牛: A tasty cow (Asia) 邪魔な二本: Two bothersome (horns) But, the "horns" are indicated by two 二 + the counter for long, thin things 本 -- so it's pronounced "ni-hon" Aka Nihon --> Japan So Japan = the two swords defending the tasty cow of Asia

OK, there are just too many good caricatures of FDR & co. in this magazine not to make this a running thread. You've seen demon, you've seen ogre, but have you seen monstrous whale? Titled "Quite a catch, Let's Go!" from Sept. 1944 issue

Ogre-like FDR & Churchill sporting quite undergarments as they stare down a tasty cow (labeled "Asia") armed with Japanese swords for horns From a Feb. 1942 edition of the satire magazine Manga

Ogre-like FDR & Churchill sporting quite undergarments as they stare down a tasty cow (labeled "Asia") armed with Japanese swords for horns From a Feb. 1942 edition of the satire magazine Manga

Just started watching Takaichi's presser, and already I'm struck by the banner calling for "[electing] the first female prime minister." That's a striking contrast to last year when I don't recall her playing that up at all.

If enacted, this will punch a hole in faculty, post-doc, and staff hirings at universities (maybe that's the intent)

This is magical

"More professors in the United States have been fired for controversial views in the past week than any other week in all of American history." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

This is the sort of result that some people will interpret as evidence that the far-right is overreaching, with another fair reading being, is there anything that a fourth of the country won't enthusiastically support?

This is an agent of the US federal government, armed for live-fire combat against a modern army, slamming a passive and nonviolent female candidate for the US Congress into asphalt. Then walking away without checking if she has injuries, with his identity concealed behind a black facemask.

It's a possibility but i'm much more worried about the right going after payment processors. If they manage to get stripe to comply, it could shut down vast swaths of the independent media ecosystem.

Comedians are far quieter today than I would have hoped.

The Gaurdian is really on a wildfire smoke kick, and I'm here for it. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Russia's invasion of Ukraine takes Yasuhiko Ito back to after World War II, when the former Soviet Union took him — a disarmed soldier of the Imperial Japanese Army — to what is now Bakhmut for forced labor.

“A democratic society needs people in Ezra Klein’s position to treat Charlie Kirk’s anti-democracy stances as disqualifying, rather than pretend they’re just another policy opinion…” @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social w/an excellent critique of Kirk hagiography www.arcdigital.media/p/ezra-klein...

im proud to announce my new “center-left” super pac called The Reasonability Center we are focusing on 3 simple truths - socialism 👎 - lgbt 👎 - exxon/mobil 👍

Great research topic for anyone looking for one: Japan's swelling wartime population of "ghost eaters" -- ie, folks who used false names/addresses to commit ration ticket fraud.

That is, unless their speech is about Palestine, because Barnard will expel students in a heartbeat for that grievous offense.

From last week's Kyunghyang Sinmun Top caption: “After the bus has left…” Text on the bus: “Detention & Plunder” Trump: “You’ll just stay, right? You’ll be right back?? Ally…”

From last week's Kyunghyang Sinmun Top caption: “After the bus has left…” Text on the bus: “Detention & Plunder” Trump: “You’ll just stay, right? You’ll be right back?? Ally…”

having taken in a puppy just last week, I feel this diary entry from Ishikawa Koyo in my bones

BBC interview with one of the Korea workers who was shackled and imprisoned. This was nothing but an American own goal. Attempting to blow up the largest economic development project in Georgia history. Billions in investment, thousands of jobs for Americans. youtu.be/fcwJtWU4fn4?...

Thrilled to finally get my hands on this brand new treatment of postwar Japanese history by one of the leading experts in our field, Simon Avenell! Can't wait to read this one!

C -- for all that is holy about Hokkaido

WTF is this? Normalizing authoritarianism repression as an electoral strategy www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

“The study found that about 7% of US adults have been present at the scene of a mass shooting in their lifetime, and more than 2% have been injured during one.”

Those interested in Japanese Studies librarianship will be delighted to learn that University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Hamilton Library has established a new training program for mentoring Japan subject librarians! Learn about this exciting new opportunity: www.hawaii.edu/news/2025/09...

The School of Planning, Policy, and Environmental Studies at San José State University is hiring an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies. We welcome applicants from all fields of environmental studies who apply an environmental justice lens to their work. jobs.sjsu.edu/sj/en-us/job...

A rather amazing reaction from engineer Hideshima Kan to his first view of Tokyo's ruins upon his repatriation from Manchuria:

It's here!!!

infographic of the interceptions encountered by B-29s during a December 1944 attack on Tokyo's Nakajima plant

Japan and South Korea show enduring rift over sexual slavery issue in letters to UN | AP News apnews.com/article/sout...

and not difficult to imagine this bleeding into normalcy even just a few months from now. one fear is that these "kinetic operations" expand in tandem with the boundaries of what constitutes terrorism

This is extrajudicial execution, without any clear threat to the US, no authorization from Congress, and far beyond even Article II. The military is not the president's personal hit squad. Or wasn't, until now.

Good piece about my pal Greg Michell's documentary on the Atomic Bowl, a bizarre football game staged by the US military in Nagasaki months after the bombing. The article starts with a Bruce Springsteen anecdote and mentions Sonic Youth. I kid you not. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

this is completely deranged and, frankly, terrifying rhetoric, even by Fox standards

ive never seen anything like rhetoric coming from the right in the last week, this is absolutely insane and it needs to stop and people in power need to start speaking the fuck up like right the fuck now

If there were a real Democratic party, it would be making an all-out play for farmers, who are taking it on all sides right now.

www.liberalcurrents.com/the-warmonge... For the afternoon crowd: I've got an article in @liberalcurrents.com arguing that renaming the DoD as the Department of War encourages militarism, misrepresents what the DoD does, and offends the values of the liberal international order.