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To: Homer_J_Simpson
Shimizu, one of the cities bombed on this date, is now a district of Shizuoka City, the capital of Shizuoka Prefecture. The "fishhook" mentioned in the article is clearly visible on Google Maps. Shizuoka is one of two areas in Japan where the leaves for green tea are cultivated, the other being the Uji area near Kyoto. Green tea aficionados debate the relative qualities of Uji vs. Shizuoka teas, much as orange aficionados debate the relative qualities of Florida vs. California oranges. (FWIW, "chajin" means "tea person" in Japanese)

However, instead of going into that today, I will leave the group with a feature-length animation which was being shown in Japanese theatres about this time. "Anime," the animation for which Japan has become famous and which is all the rage among young geeks, is invented long after the war, in part because of the inability of Japanese movie studios to compete with Disney and WB animators. However, old-fashioned cell-by-cell animation was common in the Japanese studios of the time, and during the war a few cartoons were made by Imperial Japanese propagandists to gin up the population.

The movie is Momotarō: Umi no Shinpei or "Momotato: Divine Warriors of the Sea," "Momotaro" being a well-known character of Japanese fiction. You can read the whole story here, but if you don't have the 80 minutes to "enjoy" the whole feature, skip to the last ten minutes or so, to watch how the Japanese portray themselves as Gen. Momotaro vis-à-vis the stupid, bumbling, and cowardly British of the Celebes, and then the final scene where the Japanese, in this case the animals following Momotaro, play at paratrooping into the continental US.

10 posted on 07/07/2015 6:57:57 AM PDT by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: chajin
Wow, the Japanese had a very low regard for the British. I suppose that stands to reason given their conquest of Malaya and Singapore was way too easy.

Still, this movie strikes me as delusional. They have lost every battle with us since 1943, their cities are burned out and they are on the verge of invasion. And they still think they can invade the U.S.???

11 posted on 07/07/2015 11:24:19 AM PDT by colorado tanker
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