Kuril Islands: Japan & Russia in 1945

“In 1945, two days after America bombed Hiroshima, Joseph Stalin declared war on Japan and Soviet troops attacked Japanese-held territory. They grabbed the southern Kuril islands, even though Russia had acknowledged them as Japanese since 1855. For two years the islanders lived alongside the occupiers. A touching photograph in an exhibition in Nemuro shows Russians… Read More

Ordering versus Asking

“In action it is better to order than to ask.” General Sir Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton (16 January 1853 to 12 October 1947) from his book ‘Gallipoli Diary’ published in 1920. Ian Hamilton was a British Army General who participated in operations in: The Second Boer War (1899 to 1902); Service in Japan (from 1904… Read More