The History Master

Tim Cook, chief historian at Canadian War Museum, dies | CBC News Tim Cook, the chief historian at the Canadian War Museum and the country’s “pre-eminent military historian,” has died, the museum announced Sunday.

Very sad news about the loss of historian Tim Cook, who died far too young. His impact on our understanding of Canadian military history was just massive. An outstanding historian. He will be missed.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

How Trump’s perception of Japan collides with today’s economic reality Japan was the genesis of President Donald Trump’s tariff-led approach to reshaping the global economy. When he lands in Tokyo, trade will again be on his agenda.

Merci ben to @myhlee.bsky.social for including some reflections on how Trump's thinking on Japan remains locked in the 1980s:

Tessa Morris-Suzuki has posted this essay from 2021 on SSRN. The preface, which is about why it was originally written and why it is being posted four years later, is also interesting.

I know I'm like a day late to this but the thing about Reagan and tariffs is that there were lots of people mad at Reagan for not imposing tariffs on Japan and Germany and this included important elements of labor and a whole wing of the Democratic Party

Cnut. He's forgotten about Cnut, who went on pilgrimage to Rome in 1027. Oh, and Edward I, who spent 2 months at the court of Gregory X in 1273. Otherwise, all over the detail, as per.

It has long been my contention that a ton of young white boys who watched the endless barrage of Nazis in Tanks & Airplanes "documentaries" on The History Channel back in the day took away a far messier lesson than many of us assumed. It was like "Nazis bad, but also, I dunno, kinda badass?"

I cannot recommend you enough to install the Wikipedia app on your devices and use it like you would any search engine. Nowadays they even have tabs so you can open many articles at once.

And, if you can, please donate to the foundation. It has survived the internet enshittification that way.

Thrilled to announce the publication of my article "The Invention of the Kamikaze: Dissent and Resistance in the Japanese Military" in the October issue of the Journal of Military History!

"To my dear Prince Alexis... I did not "usurp" the crown. I found it, in the gutter, and I, I picked it up with my sword, and it was the people, Alexis, the people who put it on my head..."

Struzan by himself

RIP the legendary Drew Struzan (1947-2025) 😩

Even though we were expecting the news any day now, it makes me very sad. What an artist.

Not very unhinged, but: Stop reading a book if you're bouncing off of it. Stop "powering through." You're just wasting your time. You don't get a gold star for finishing books you're not enjoying reading.

Satoshi Kon would have turned 62 today ;_;
Fanart by Jinou (x.com/Jinou_rakugaki)

I was well over 30 when I wrote and published my first novel, and fully agree with you!

1817 map snipping, "Well. Well. Well."

Look what we have here then.

To me there are two kinds of columnists: Those who know what they know — and only write on that — and those who don’t know what they don’t know and feel free to write on everything. The former is the only kind worth listening to. I try very very hard to be the former.

Being a columnist is so cool. You can have absolutely no experience whatsoever and still drop whatever takes you want. Serve in the military? No? Work in natsec? No? Have an academic background in defense? No? Have any government experience at all? No?

Who cares! Fire that column off anyways!

Malone would write a massive two volume biography of his part in the war during the 1980s. No idea how much it differs, exactly, from his single 1946 version, but it might be significant.

Ok, AI slop. Let's go.

I took this for a spin to see how good it actually is 👇

Vintage grape nuts cereal ad. An anthropomorphic box of G-nuts with thick sexy legs holds a man in a suit from behind.

Grape Nuts (holding me back): Whoa whoa whoa, hey man, just let it go! This asshole isn't worth it!

We are saddened to hear of the passing of Jerome A. Cohen, the eminent scholar of Chinese law. Our condolences to his family and all those who loved him.

He authored many books, most recently the memoir, "Eastward, Westward: A Life in Law."

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From April 1942: An elephant labeled “India” is crushed by a press marked “East India Company,” its blood being squeezed out and dripping into a container labeled “Britain’s Nutrition”

The elephants at the Ueno Zoo would be ceremonially sacrificed less than a year later...

Why Can’t Japan Solve Historical Perception Issues? The academic debate over the history of the Asia-Pacific War and Japan’s colonial era has been largely resolved. So why does that history remain so politicized?

The academic debate over the history of the Asia-Pacific War and Japan’s colonial era has been largely resolved. So why does that history remain so politicized?

The Sum of All Beards How did facial hair win American men’s hearts and minds? Thank the war on terror.

Apparently, we've come full circle again... newrepublic.com/article/1540...

From last week's Kyunghyang Sinmun

Top caption: “After the bus has left…”
Text on the bus: “Detention & Plunder”
Trump: “You’ll just stay, right? You’ll be right back?? Ally…”

Apologies for not adding alt text to all these photos. My cat is screaming her head off and if I don't let her outside right this instance, where I have to accompany her, I might die.

Style lessons from Robert Redford, one of the most stylish men in the last century. 🧵

“My idea of heaven is to wake up, have a good breakfast,

and spend the rest of the day drawing."

Peter Falk #BOTD

my favorite robert redford story is that mike nichols considered him for dustin hoffman's part in THE GRADUATE. during their conversation nichols asked redford something like, "have you ever struck out with a girl?" and redford's response was basically, "i don't understand the question"

- Girls, you’re okay to go to the garrison dance, but stay away from the cavalry officers, they are the most dreadful rakes.

- But mum, how will I know he’s a cavalry officer?

- Don’t worry sweetheart, he’ll tell you.

Most Americans/US media are aware of K-Pop and know of Korean-US population. But have not lived or worked in ROK. Lack a sense of on what points, and why, Korean history, dignity, and self-respect are at stake.

If the US *wanted* to offend a crucial partner, it could not have done worse.

Japan Times Editorial: "The fact that only the U.S. suffers this level of firearm-related violence renders specious the claim that this problem cannot be addressed through gun control." www.japantimes.co.jp/editorials/2...