Latest news with #Okada
Japan Today
2 days ago
- General
- Japan Today
Wartime child worker reveals dark secrets of Japan's 'Rabbit Island'
By Tomoji Tatsumi Okunoshima has become famous globally as Japan's Instagrammable "Rabbit Island," but little is known about its dark history as a host to a wartime poison gas factory and weapons plant. Today, people come to enjoy the picturesque views of the Seto Inland Sea from campgrounds and hiking trails in the Inland Sea National Park, with the island's charm and intriguing past making it a compelling subject for online content. Eighty years ago, the island hosted a secret poison gas factory that played a key role in Japan's illegal use of chemical weapons in occupied China. It was also a production site for the military's long-range, unmanned, incendiary "balloon bombs" that were used against the United States during World War II. Reiko Okada was mobilized to the island as a teenager for the war effort, helping the Imperial Japanese Army build balloon bombs known as "Fu-Go." Okada, now 95, is one of the few people still alive who has both a "gas notebook" for poison gas victims and an "A-bomb notebook" for survivors of the atomic bomb. Japan, which was a signatory to the Geneva Protocol of 1925 that prohibited the use of chemical and biological weapons, produced mustard gas and other deadly chemical weapons on Okunoshima, at what was the largest poison gas factory in Asia. Okada was sent to Okunoshima as a 15-year-old third-year student at Tadanoumi Girls' High School in Takehara -- near the seaside Hiroshima Prefecture city located on the main island of Honshu -- in 1945. After the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945, effectively bringing about Japan's defeat in World War II, she also worked as a relief worker in the suburbs of Hiroshima. In an interview, the former art teacher from Mihara, Hiroshima Prefecture, declared her willingness to tell the "last story of my life" and warned: "If we do not face up to our responsibility as perpetrators of the war, we will repeat the mistakes of the past." At the end of 1944, the government had proclaimed "ichioku gyokusai," translated literally as "100 million shattered jewels." The phrase served as the last unofficial rallying cry of the empire, expressing the regime's willingness to sacrifice the entire Japanese population, if necessary, to protect the fatherland. Whenever Okada, who was mobilized in November of the same year, heard these words, she stared fixedly at the surrounding waters and thought: "I don't want to die." The following summer, when Japan was bombed by U.S. air raids in various regions, Okada and the other girls were suddenly ordered to "evacuate" poison gas materials to a neighboring island. In the sweltering heat, the schoolgirls donned work gloves and transported the chemical barrels to a dock, making more than a dozen trips a day for over two weeks. Okada says she and the others were given strict instructions by the army not to reveal Okunoshima's location to family or friends. On Aug. 15, students gathered in a square on the island to listen to the "Jewel Voice Broadcast" in which Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's acceptance of the Allied demand for unconditional surrender in a radio address. Then, for about two weeks from Aug. 18, she was involved in an A-bomb relief effort in a middle school auditorium in a suburb of Hiroshima. She says it was a horrific scene where people were dying every day. "It felt like a damp world of maggots crawling inside weakened bodies," she recalled. Okada, who had traveled to the city within two weeks of the bomb's detonation, was certified as a hibakusha -- atomic bomb survivor -- because she had entered the affected area shortly after the attack. Before that traumatizing period, she had spent time on the island in the weapons factory. There, she and her fellow students used a paste made from konnyaku root to build the unmanned, hydrogen-filled balloon bombs, which were 10 meters in diameter and made of Japanese washi paper. Carrying incendiary bombs and an advanced-for-its-time altitude control system, the balloons were able to ride the jet stream across the Pacific and reach North America. Between 1944 and 1945, more than 9,000 of these balloons were launched, mostly from three bases in Japan, and at least 300 are believed to have reached the U.S. mainland, where they caused wildfires but little other major damage. Okada realized her own culpability in the war, however, when she later learned that six people, including children, had been killed by a balloon bomb in western Oregon in May 1945 -- the only known casualties in the continental United States from an enemy attack during the war. After the war, Okada studied at a fine arts college run by Kyoto city. She returned to her hometown of Mihara, where she taught art at a local high school until her mid-50s, before devoting herself to painting privately and peace work. She suffered physical after-effects from her time in Hiroshima shortly after the bombing and from chronic bronchitis caused by her stint on Okunoshima. However, treatment allowed her to overcome her ailments. After the war, Okada also learned that poison gas weapons had wreaked havoc in China. In 1989, after retiring from teaching, she published a book of pictures documenting her war experiences and sent it to Chinese war victims to express her remorse and apologies. Since then, she has continued her anti-war campaigning through her drawing and writing. According to the U.S. military's post-war records, Japan produced 6,616 tons of poison gas that was used in over 7 million ammunition rounds, including artillery shells. Some of the poison gas munitions transported to China went unused and were left abandoned, causing problems when they were later found or unearthed. The Japanese government confirmed the "existence of abandoned chemical weapons" in a memorandum to the Chinese government in 1999. Currently, the total number of chemical weapon munitions left behind is estimated at more than 100,000. Japan and China are working together to dispose of them. Okada believes Japanese people "should accept causing a war as our responsibility, face it, reflect on it, apologize for it, make amends for it and ensure that it leads to friendship and peace." With various conflicts raging around the world, "we don't know when Japan will go to war," she said. "Each and every one of us must not be deceived, and we must all work together to prevent war. "Nationalism is the doctrine that must be feared the most." © KYODO
The Star
2 days ago
- General
- The Star
Johor next in reforestation effort
THE Malaysia-Japan Friendship Forest Programme has begun its next chapter in reforestation with a new initiative in Segamat, Johor. The initiative, announced by Aeon during a ceremony at Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM), will see 30,000 trees planted across 36ha over three years from 2025 to 2027. This announcement also marked the completion of the programme's first phase in Bidor, Perak, where 30,000 rainforest trees were planted between 2014 and 2023 on a 22.75ha former tin mining site. A symbolic tree planting session with species including meranti temak nipis, meranti tembaga and sesenduk at Padang 44 in FRIM Kepong marked the start of the Segamat phase. At the ceremony, Aeon managing director Naoya Okada and FRIM director-general Datuk Ismail Parlan exchanged a letter of intent (LOI) to formalise the collaboration. Okada (right) and Ismail (second right) planting a tree at the ceremony. The exchange was witnessed by FRIM deputy director-general (Research) Norwati Muhammad, and Aeon deputy managing director Tsugutoshi Seko. 'The Bidor project is a testament to what can be achieved when corporate responsibility combined with scientific expertise,' said Okada. 'We are proud to carry this legacy forward in Segamat.' He added that since 1991, Aeon had planted over 557,000 trees nationwide as part of its environmental initiatives. The initiative in Bidor also contributed to the 100 million tree planting campaign by Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Ministry. Ismail said the Bidor site would be maintained as a research and seed production plot, adding that the reforestation efforts have successfully attracted various species of fauna, including migratory birds. 'FRIM welcomes the collaboration with Aeon in conserving and protecting the environment. 'We are also open and ready to explore other areas of collaboration in the future,' said Ismail.
The Age
27-06-2025
- Business
- The Age
Why Japan is so in love with Aussie coffee (and vice versa)
'But now, everyone's getting it,' he says. 'It's growing so much, it's exponential.' Yee recalls being at Weekenders cafe in Kyoto when a barista pulled out a bag of coffee and asked if he'd heard of the roaster: the beans were from Yee's own Artificer Coffee. Even in a back lane in Kanazawa, he chanced upon Artificer being served at Nonstop Coffee. Australia's influence on Japan's caffeine habits is undeniable, but the reverse is also true. Single O specialises in coffee, but the fastest-growing menu item at its Brisbane and Sydney cafes is matcha. And %Arabica – established in Kyoto in 2014 – will soon open its first Australian store at Bondi. 'They know their clients,' says Okada. %Arabica's location by Kyoto's landmark Togetsukyo Bridge is highly Instagrammable, and he suspects Bondi was chosen for a similar reason: its beach doubles as a photogenic backdrop for coffee snapshots. 'It's iconic.'
Sydney Morning Herald
27-06-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Why Japan is so in love with Aussie coffee (and vice versa)
'But now, everyone's getting it,' he says. 'It's growing so much, it's exponential.' Yee recalls being at Weekenders cafe in Kyoto when a barista pulled out a bag of coffee and asked if he'd heard of the roaster: the beans were from Yee's own Artificer Coffee. Even in a back lane in Kanazawa, he chanced upon Artificer being served at Nonstop Coffee. Australia's influence on Japan's caffeine habits is undeniable, but the reverse is also true. Single O specialises in coffee, but the fastest-growing menu item at its Brisbane and Sydney cafes is matcha. And %Arabica – established in Kyoto in 2014 – will soon open its first Australian store at Bondi. 'They know their clients,' says Okada. %Arabica's location by Kyoto's landmark Togetsukyo Bridge is highly Instagrammable, and he suspects Bondi was chosen for a similar reason: its beach doubles as a photogenic backdrop for coffee snapshots. 'It's iconic.'
Japan Times
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
‘Kisspeptin Chronicles': Quirky rom-com dances through the pain of heartache
Rom-coms are by definition movies about comical miscues in the game of love, usually ending with the protagonist winning through to happiness, even if their first object of affection escaped them. In her debut feature, 'Kisspeptin Chronicles,' Shiika Okada doesn't completely toss out this formula — she finds humor in her central character's disastrous love life — but she also shows the darker side of bad romantic decisions and their devastating results, as well as the lasting pain that comes from experiencing sexual harassment. Co-scripted by Okada with her elder brother, Kazune, who is also a director, the film has an autobiographical feel — watching it, I was reminded of the confessional music of Taylor Swift. However, whether or not the story has a basis in the Okada siblings' own lives, it has the ring of lived truth, directed with a quirky originality.
