Free Republic

Bernard Stein never talked about his combat experiences in Southeast Asia during World War II, but he’d brought the flag home as a war trophy after fighting with the U.S. Army’s 38th Infantry Division in the Philippines, said Scott Stein.

Renowned Japanese brand Panasonic has announced today that it is returning with immediate effect to the U.S. TV marketplace after a near decade-long absence. The brand has confirmed, too, that its return won’t be some half-hearted toe-dipping exercise; in fact it’s going to be giving U.S. AV fans the opportunity to get their hands on its most premium OLED models—models deemed so good by the home entertainment world that they’re sometimes used as reference monitors in professional mastering suites. It came as a shock to many, including me, when Panasonic announced in 2016 that it was no longer going to...

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a large floating accumulation of debris in the Pacific Ocean, can be cleaned up within 10 years at a cost of $7.5 billion — or within five years with a more aggressive strategy costing $4 billion. That’s according to the Ocean Cleanup, a non-profit organization that has led the fight to remove the dangerous plastic from the Pacific — most of which, it says, consists of discarded fishing equipment from Japan and China. The patch is one of the world’s most pressing environmental problems — one that Vice President Kamala Harris said, incorrectly, can be...

Sharing important post by Daniel Berke, (from Manchester, he’s part of UKLFI) sent today 0900 in Gaza/Israel: Shared with his permission. ==== I've been in Gaza with Natasha Hausdorff, Richard Kemp and our group of 5 Eyes senior military veterans. Other than Douglas Murray and Richard Kemp we were the first allowed in The photos need to approved by the IDF. However: We travelled with the Deputy Commander imof the 162nd Southern Command with an armoured infantry unit along the full length of the Philadelphi Corridor, along the Egyptian border to the Sea. The claim that Israel does not allow...

He states that there will be “Rapid Approvals” for the following: —— new drillings, new pipelines, new refineries, new power and electric plants, and new reactors of all types (nuclear) —— “This will quickly reduce the prices of everything almost immediately.”

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris visited Pittsburgh for the Labor Day holiday with President Biden. There, she declared that United States Steel should remain domestically owned and operated, yet another high-profile critic of US Steel’s proposed sale to Japan’s Nippon Steel. “US Steel is a historic American company, and it is vital for our nation to maintain strong American steel companies,” Harris told the audience at Union Hall in Pittsburgh, where US Steel is headquartered. She said, “I couldn’t agree more with President Biden — US Steel should remain American-owned, and American-operated. And I will always...

Almost 40,000 people died alone in their homes in Japan during the first half of 2024, a report by the country’s police shows. Of that number, nearly 4,000 people were discovered more than a month after they died, and 130 bodies went unmissed for a year before they were found, according to the National Police Agency. Accounting for 7,498 of the bodies found, the dataset’s largest group belonged to 85-year-olds and above, followed by 75-79-year-olds at 5,920. People aged between 70 and 74 accounted for 5,635 of the bodies found.

Aug. 26 (UPI) -- Japan scrambled fighter jets after a Chinese military plane, for the first time, violated the island nation's airspace, the Japanese government confirmed Monday. According to Japan's Defense Ministry, a Y-9 intelligence-gathering plane at about 11:29 a.m. local time flew over the East China Sea near the Danjo Islands off the southwestern prefecture Nagasaki for roughly two minutes. The incursion prompted the Air Self-Defense Force to scramble its fighter jets, defense ministry officials said. The Y-9 reportedly circled above the water southeast of the islands multiple times before it entered Japanese airspace and before flying back toward...

If ever there were an economic example of the dog that caught the car and has no idea what to do now—it’s Japan, circa 2024. For 25 years now, a succession of leaders tried—and largely failed—to defeat deflation and produce sustained inflation. As many Americans not feeling the economic boom in the globe’s biggest economy will tell you, inflation has a way of clouding all else. Here in Japan, it’s rising faster than wages. In 1999, the BOJ became the first major central bank to slash rates to zero. Two years later, it pioneered quantitative easing. All that free money...

BREAKING: 7.2-magnitude earthquake strikes off Russian coast - tsunami warning issued

The warning of a tremor that could kill more than 320,000 people is forcing Japan to think of the abstract danger of disaster in more concrete terms, says Gearoid Reidy for Bloomberg Opinion.To live in Japan is to live with the risk of a devastating earthquake at any time. Usually, however, people tend to view that threat in the abstract. It’s kind of like thinking about death - I know I’ll die someday, but I hope it won’t be today. And so far, at least, I keep getting lucky. Until we don’t. Thursday’s announcement from Japanese authorities, warning of an...

TOKYO — Japan issued a tsunami advisory Thursday after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the southern island of Kyushu. The temblor occurred off the coast of Miyazaki Prefecture at 4:42 p.m. local time (3:42 a.m. ET), at a depth of about 18 miles, according to Japan’s meteorological agency. Japanese officials issued a tsunami advisory and warned residents to immediately leave coastal areas of Kochi and Miyazaki prefectures until it had been lifted. Advisories are issued when the waves are not expected to exceed 1 meter (3.3 feet).

Nguyen Muchan, who runs a current affairs-related account on the Chinese social media Weibo, is considered a figure representing the patriotism of Chinese youth. Just looking at the cat photo she posted on her social media home screen, she looks no different from any other young Chinese woman her age. However, the 6.4 million subscribers who visit here are enthusiastic about her ‘spicy mouth’ armed with patriotism, not her cute profile picture. Last year, when Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix provided information related to the semiconductor supply chain to the United States at the request of the U.S. government, Nguyen...

Three groups of Russian nuclear-capable bombers and fighter escorts buzzed the airspace in Japan's northern waters on Tuesday one week after similar long-range sorties near the U.S. coast off Alaska.

Japan's biggest steelmaker, Nippon Steel Corp... has hired former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to help with its effort to acquire U.S. Steel ... "We look forward to working alongside him to further emphasize the ways in which Nippon Steel's acquisition of U.S. Steel bolsters the country's economic and national security," Nippon Steel said ... Pompeo had not been given a specific job title within the company. ... Although both steelmakers have received all regulatory approvals outside of the United States for their proposed $14.9 billion merger, they face political opposition and regulatory scrutiny from within the United States....

No matter its stated reasons, no matter how misguided its policy, the United States administration, advised by its historically anti-Israel Department of State, is putting severe pressure on Israel to stop fighting Hamas in Gaza, without permitting it first to achieve its war aim of complete destruction of this threat to its existence. They are doing it without regard for the consequences to Israel, its population, and to the Western world. Given the arrogance of the Biden administration’s dictating a suicidal wartime policy to an allied government which must answer to its own people, it is instructive to consider the...

On the occasion of his 100th birthday, United States Marine Corps and World War 2 veteran Carl Dekle reflected on his long life and the blessings he’s enjoyed in an interview with Tampa’s Fox 13. The Silver Star recipient recalled the Battle of Guadalcanal and his gratitude that the Lord brought him home and says that he would do it again if he had to — and if he were the right age. In full uniform for the interview, Dekle said: “Most important thing in my life was serving my country. I don’t think I could take away from that…It...

Tokyo — Japanese health supplement maker Kobayashi Pharmaceutical said Friday it was probing 76 more deaths possibly linked to its tablets containing red yeast rice, meant to lower cholesterol. It deepens a scandal that erupted earlier this year when the company said it was looking into five deaths potentially linked to the over-the-counter products after dozens of customers reported kidney problems... Fermented with a mould culture, red yeast rice, or "benikoji," has been used in food, alcoholic drinks and folk medicines for centuries around East Asia. "Even if the direct cause of hospitalisation or death was not kidney-related disease,...

Japan has become another piece of fodder for the West’s culture wars. After a recent visit with his family, talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel praised the country for its clean toilets and lack of litter, only to be lambasted by right-wing pundits such as Ben Shapiro, who accused the comedian of having leftist beliefs that are completely at odds with what makes Japanese society so safe and orderly. Namely, Shapiro argued, Japan is a closed-off nation, unpersuaded by arguments to allow mass migration, and its homogeneity and “unique culture,” along with a strict legal system, help…Japan has become another piece of...

Sworn to secrecy by the Japanese Imperial Army, Hideo Shimizu carried the horrors he saw at the notorious Unit 731 facility with him for more than 70 years. The 93-year-old was just 14 when he was drafted as a cadet to the city of Harbin, in what was then Japanese-occupied Manchuria, during World WaR 2. There, he was groomed to take part in some of history's worst atrocities - human experiments carried out on prisoners of war including pregnant women and small children. More than 3,000 people - mostly Chinese civilians, but also Russian, British and American POWs - were...