[Reposted in memorium of the fifth anniversary of the nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima - originally posted March 27, 2011] "The Japanese word Kamikaze is usually translated as "divine wind" (kami is the word for "god", "spirit", or "divinity", and kaze for "wind"). The word kamikaze originated as the name of... » read this article

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Anwar Ibrahim is an unusual man in two respects. One is that the former deputy prime minister of Malaysia is probably the only senior politician in the world to have been charged with sodomy (which is a crime in Malaysia). Not only that: he was charged with sodomy twice, in... » read this article

Editorial Note: In Japan, the convergence of interests for humans and the natural world make interesting food for thought. I expect we always benefit from defending the natural world (like the endangered woodpeckers of Okinawa), and we can tell when we're on the right track if the natural world benefits... » read this article

Editor's Note: E. San Juan, Jr.'s treatise below is decidedly an academic (and lengthy) paper and is not written for the casual reader. But for those who wish to educate themselves about U.S. intervention in the Philippines, the resulting political and social chaos and the struggle of the Filipino people... » read this article

12 April 2011 Yesterday marked one month since the massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated much of north-eastern Japan and produced the worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 reactor explosion at Chernobyl in the Ukraine. While Japanese politicians, officials and representatives of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) marked... » read this article

Japan's disaster and the global recession provide stark lessons on societies' failure to manage risks, economist says.   The consequences of the Japanese earthquake - especially the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant - resonate grimly for observers of the American financial crash that precipitated the Great Recession. Both events... » read this article

Editor's Comment: Axis of Logic began reporting on Australia's treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in 2004 when Australian Mary Dagmar Davies contacted us about her sacrificial efforts to build the Jannah the SIEVX Memorial named after the SIEVX, "the Titanic of the Poor". It was a tiny Australia-bound fishing boat... » read this article

Japan’s relationship with the US is complicated. From enemies in war to professed partners in peace, the two countries have been intrinsically linked for more than three generations. The people of Okinawa, Japan’s southernmost prefecture, have been caught in the crossfire of this tempestuous relationship. Geographically distant and retaining its... » read this article

24 November 2010 An exchange of artillery fire between North and South Korea on Tuesday provoked angry denunciations from Washington and warnings from Beijing and Moscow that mounting military tensions could provoke a disaster. Each side blamed the other in the confrontation, which erupted near the Northern Limit Line, the... » read this article

The island of Guam is a most remarkable place of cultural distinctiveness and resourcefulness and of great physical beauty.[1] The Chamorro people who have lived here for 4000 years also have an historical experience with colonialism and military occupation more long-lived and geographically intensive, acre for acre, than anywhere else... » read this article

A new study by U.S. researchers raises questions about the investigation into the sinking of a South Korean navy ship. International investigators blamed a North Korean torpedo, raising tensions on the Korean peninsula. Researchers J.J. Suh and Seung-Hun Lee say the South Korean Joint Investigation Group made a weak case... » read this article

The run-up to presidential elections is a time of heightened state-sponsored repression as Asia’s foremost ‘death squad democracy’ wages war on its progressive rural medical workers. The notoriously violent and corrupt elections in the Philippines stand in sharp contrast with those in South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Malaysia, where the... » read this article

On August 30th 2009, The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), led by Yukio Hatoyama, won Japan’s Lower House election by a landslide, establishing 303 seats in the 480-seat chamber. The victory by the DPJ ended more than 50 years of almost continuous rule by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The... » read this article

This is an article about New Zealand (Godzone)* that is only controversial if you happen to be an archaeologist, an anthropologist, a Maori, or a rat. I have a friend in Godzone who is neither an archaeologist, nor an anthropologist, nor a Maori. I’m not sure about whether he’s a... » read this article

... » read this article

Published May 8, 2008 Rejecting the continued U.S. occupation of the sovereign nation of Hawaii, a group of Native Hawaiians has re-established its own government, named the Hawaiian Kingdom Government. On April 30, that government reclaimed the Iolani Palace, home of the last Hawaiian monarchs before they were overthrown by... » read this article

March 29, 2008 A category of semi-secret U.S. bases is vastly extending the Pentagon�s military presence around the globe. Innocuously called CSLs, for Cooperative Security Locations, these bases are a new, covert form of intervention. The CSLs and other loose security agreements allow the Pentagon to set up facilities and... » read this article

For its entire existence, Israel has been portrayed as a �civilised� society with Western �liberal democratic principles�, defended by an �heroic� army. Western media coverage has been bluntly biased in favour of Israel regardless of the enormity of Israel�s war crimes and Israel�s violations of international law and civilised norms.... » read this article

MAJURO, Marshall Islands (Marianas Variety, March 10) � Islanders from two ground zeros for 67 American nuclear tests and a third island that was engulfed in radioactive fallout in a Chernobyl-style nuclear accident are to file lawsuits in United States courts seeking more than $1 billion in compensation. Seeing virtually... » read this article