When the Berlin Wall was torn down with angle grinders and shovels on November 11, 1989, the people of Germany had one of two entirely different experiences. In the West, life continued. The borders were a little bigger, and the Allied presence lessened a little, but they lived on. But in the East, everything changed. […]
Tag: World War II
Yasukuni Shrine: More Than Just Honoring the Dead
The Yasukuni Shrine is tucked away off a bustling Tokyo street, a stone’s throw away from the Imperial Palace at the center of the city. In the grounds around its palatial Shinto-style architecture lie a series of shrines commemorating the millions of people who died in the internal struggles that created modern Japan as we […]
When Universalism Met Culture
As I read the story of Aasia Bibi, the 17-year-old Pakistani girl who unintentionally poisoned and killed 17 members of her family in her attempt to escape the prospect of an arranged marriage, I wonder how many South Asian women have contemplated the same. As a South Indian woman myself, talk of my marriage is […]
The Art of Unapologizing
Political apologies are flawed, especially from the perspective of comfort women. About 20,000 women and girls were taken against their will to “comfort stations” throughout East Asia to provide sexual service to Japanese troops before and during WWII. The sacrifice of these “comfort women” were not formally recognized until fifty years after the war: the Kono […]