The View from a Drawbridge

Tag: japan

  • Saving the Animals of Fukushima

    On March 11, 2011, an earthquake struck off the coast of Japan near Honshu Island. This quake set off a tsunami of 45 foot high waves crashing into the Japanese coast, at the very site of a very badly built and poorly situated nuclear power plant in Fukushima. As you can well imagine, things went…

  • Color Me Surprised

    Here’s an interesting bit of trivia that I recently picked up from God knows where: The English language didn’t have a word for the color orange until the 1540’s. That’s about the time when the fruit started becoming available to Europeans. That fascinates me. And it also answers a question that I’ve had for decades.…

  • Jeannette Rankin: A Woman Who Stood Alone

    Recently I watched a program about the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and in it they mentioned in passing that after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt went to congress to ask them to declare war on Japan and there was only one vote against it. Think about that for a minute. That had…

  • Environmental Meddling

    Anyone who lives in the Southeastern United States is familiar with kudzu. This amazingly insidious vine was introduced to this country by the Japanese at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, and since then, according to Wikipedia, it’s been spreading at the rate of 150,000 acres annually, which seems really intimidating until you realize that…

  • Okinawa Dreaming

    This week I applied for a job on Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan. I qualify for it, and what the heck? Nothing is holding me here. I could use an adventure! Since then I’ve been reading about that beautiful island, and my imagination has taken off. I can already visualize my life there.…

  • I’ve Got Your Number. Right Here.

    Well, everyone, I’ve got sad news. Today is 12/12/12, and it’s the last day any of us will see a triple date like that in our lifetimes. How sad. I’m sure to some people it’s even very significant, perhaps life-threatening. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there is a doomsday cult out there somewhere…