Meet the man who used his artistic talents to resist Nazi occupation, then planned an elaborate scheme to destroy a public records building by posing as a German official. In the occupied Netherlands, a group of artists fought the law with typography and tailoring. Why did Willem Arondeus go from a little-known WII resistance fighter to a hit with Tumblr teens, and what can his story teach us about resisting fascism today?
This week, we’re looking at the early decades of Japan’s colonization of Hokkaido, and the means by which the island…
This week: how did the threat of Western imperialism change the relationship between mainland Japan and Hokkaido, and help set…
Was Mao Zedong’s fourth wife one of history’s most brutal criminals, or was she a scapegoat for a country that needed to preserve the image of its founding father? The answer is complicated, tragic, and involves a surprising amount of high-stakes theater criticism.
This week, we’re starting a multi-part series on the history of one of Japan’s major islands, and its first colonial…
This week, we’re covering the life and career of a poet often overlooked despite her fame in her own lifetime:…
This week, we’re taking a deep dive into a distinctly Japanese literary genre (zuihitsu, or ‘wandering brush’) by looking at…
China’s last emperor ended up becoming one of history’s strangest political pawns, and ended his life as an avowed communist. How did a man born into unimaginable wealth end up penning a memoir about the evils of the landlord class? And was his disavowal of his privileged upbringing genuine, or was he the victim of a justice system that perfected the art of brainwashing prisoners?
This week, we’re talking about one of the most famous stories in Japanese history: the bamboo princess Naotake no Kaguyahime…
This week, we’re talking about one of Japan’s territorial disputes: the bitter debate over ownership of the Senaku Islands/Diaoyu Islands/Pinnacle…