Real Letters from Iwo Jima

Had a weekend of Japanese WWII thanks to Clint Eastwood and the new Janus collection of films at the Mansfield Library (野火 - "Fire on the Plain"). I tried digging up some of the actual letters depicted in the film "Letters From Iwo Jima," in an effort to more fully digest the tragedy and futility of war in general. I found several links to letters from Kamikaze pilots before departing on their final mission. Also Wikiquote has a page devoted to Gen. Kuribayashi. And finally, books and other links to further letters of pilots and soldiers can be found here.

There's gonna be a horror film about this soon.

Japan is aging. Fast. Fully one-fifth of the country's population. And while Japan ages, the suicide rate in this group has also risen due to loneliness, depression, honour and a host of other issues. In order to combat this, certain toy companies have been targeting this audience with "Healing Toys." Case in point: Yumel the Healing Partner from Tomy. Designed to talk to you and keep you company, Yumel comes in either gender and in a number of pastel colors. You can watch a video of Yumel here. My personal favorite is this list that was published in Harper's Magazine of translations of Yumel's repertoire.