Japan Times :: Sunday, July 26, 2009

• 2. LIFE IN JAPAN - EDAN CORKILL
  Soldier who stayed on tells filmmaker how 'We had to kill, kill, kill'
  July 26, 2009
  By EDAN CORKILL, Staff writer
  The most astounding moment in "Flowers and Troops," a documentary film by Yojyu Matsubayashi, is when the young director leans close to one of his subjects — an 87-year-old former corporal in the Imperial Japanese Army — and says, "I've heard that some Japanese soldiers ate human flesh." continued ...


• 3. LIFE IN JAPAN - EDAN CORKILL
  China vets shock archivist with 'horrible things they did'
  July 26, 2009
  By EDAN CORKILL, Staff writer
  In 1999, Sinitirou Kumagai dropped out of university, got on his motorbike and set out to begin what he now calls his "life work" — traveling from one end of Japan to the other to record the testimonies of former soldiers stationed in China between the 1930s and the end of World War II in 1945. continued ...


• 4. LIFE IN JAPAN - EDAN CORKILL
  Words of War
  July 26, 2009
  Some young Japanese are striving to record the wartime memories of aging former combatants before they are forever lost to posterity
  By EDAN CORKILL, Staff writer
  In among the familiar roll call of memorial services, television specials, peace ceremonies and other events in Japan planned to coincide with next month's 64th anniversary of the end of World War II, one stands out for its unlikely involvement of youth. continued ...


• 16. NATIONAL NEWS
  Osaka governor, Keidanren head push agenda for regional blocs
  July 26, 2009
  KARUIZAWA, Nagano Pref. (Kyodo) Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto and Fujio Mitarai, chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), agreed Saturday on the need to reorganize the country into larger geographical blocs from the current 47 prefectures. continued ...


• 28. NATIONAL NEWS
  Aso draws flak for saying working is seniors' only talent
  July 26, 2009
  Kyodo News
  Prime Minister Taro Aso drew quick fire Saturday after he told a Yokohama gathering of young people the "elderly have no talents other than working." continued ...