History

What happened the last time the famed Mt. Fuji erupted? Learn about the Hoei Eruption, and the great crisis it caused during the Edo era.
They're one of the world's most important Japanese diaspora groups. Meet the Japanese-Peruvians, and learn their dramatic history.
Spurred by colonialist propaganda that called his people "a dying race," Iboshi Hokuto spent his short life in service to his belief that "only the Ainu could save the Ainu."
In 1990, journalist Akiyama Toyohiro became the first Japanese astronaut in space. Too bad he had such a rough time of it.
In 1219, the shogun Minamoto no Sanetomo, samurai lord of all Japan, was slain on the steps of Tsurugaoka Shrine in Kamakura, killed by his own nephew in cold blood. Who was Sanetomo - and why was he assassinated?
Rumors and disinformation sparked the Kanto Massacre in the wake of the Kanto Earthquake. Today, denialism continues to dishonor the victims.
When the U.S. Civil War broke out in 1861, samurai still ruled Japan. How did the samurai - recently forced into trade with the US and on the cusp of their own war - react?
She was a symbol of prewar prosperity - and controversy. How the "modern girl" of Japan's roaring 1920s defined a new path for women.
In 1938, a disaffected young man stalked his mountain village, killing dozens of his neighbors. Was the Tsuyama Massacre the first incel mass murder?

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