# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"Spring Rain" (Zhu Yin and Wen Bo). Composed by Zhu Yin and Wen Bo in the 1980s, Spring Rain derives its theme from a ballad of Southeastern China. Technically very demanding, it describes the experience of a rain storm in spring season and of the ensuing refreshment of the air.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sakura "Cherry Blossoms";Traditional Music of Japan, Classical Koto Music 日本の伝統音楽

# data[].attributes.body
1 agosto 1894~ 17 aprile 1895

# data[].attributes.body
7 luglio 1937~ 2 settembre 1945.

# data[].attributes.body
il dicembre 1937~ 1938.

# data[].attributes.body
1936~ 1945

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Six of the most disturbing "experiments" conducted by Unit 731, some of history's worst war criminals to ever get away with it.

World War II was beyond horrible for hundreds of millions of people. It's as if all the developed countries of the world had surplus rage and hate that they had been storing up, and it all came flooding out in the war years.

Out of all the areas in which World War II was fought, none were active as long as what would come to be known as the Pacific Theater. In fact, Japan arguably started the war by attacking Manchuria in 1931, and it inarguably waged war with China by invading in 1937.

The disturbances and upheavals that these invasions caused shook China to its very foundations, triggered a civil war and a famine that probably killed more people than currently live in Canada and Australia combined, and lasted until the country's Soviet "liberation" in 1945.

And out of all the outrages that Imperial Japan unleashed upon the Chinese people during this brutal occupation - and there were indeed some stunning crimes committed, even by World War II standards - probably none was as gratuitously hateful as the operations of Unit 731, the Japanese biological warfare unit that somehow plumbed new depths in what was already a nearly genocidal war.

Despite innocent beginnings as a research and public health agency, Unit 731 eventually grew into an assembly line for weaponized diseases that, if fully deployed, could have killed everyone on Earth several times over. All this "progress" was, of course, built on the limitless suffering of human prisoners, who were held as test subjects and walking disease incubators until Unit 731 disbanded at the end of the war.

In a long list of atrocities, these six programs, in particular, stand out in the bloody history of Unit 731:

Unit 731 Experiments: Frostbite Testing

Yoshimura Hisato, a physiologist assigned to Unit 731, took a special interest in hypothermia. As part of Maruta's study in limb injuries, Hisato routinely submerged prisoners' limbs in a tub of water filled with ice and had them held until the arm or leg had frozen solid and a coat of ice had formed over the skin. According to one eyewitness account, the limbs made a sound like a plank of wood when struck with a cane.

Hisato then tried different methods for rapid rewarming of the frozen appendage. Sometimes he did this by dousing the limb with hot water, sometimes by holding it close to an open fire, and other times by leaving the subject untreated overnight to see how long it took for the person's own blood to thaw it out.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
6 Horrifying Human "Experiments" That WWII Japan Got Away With

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
World War II was beyond horrible for hundreds of millions of people. It's as if all the developed countries of the world had surplus rage and hate that they had been storing up, and it all came flooding out in the war years.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
La Grande guerra (1914-1918) fu una catastrofe per l'Occidente. Fece precipitare l'Europa in un massacro e in una distruzione massiccia e senza senso, eppure, un secolo più tardi è ancora attuale la domanda sulla possibilità che un'analoga tragedia colpisca il mondo. La regione dove i dissidi tra grandi potenze potrebbe innescare un'importante guerra è l'Asia Orientale. Una pericolosa rivalità geopolitica, che ricorda in maniera inquietante l'Europa alla vigilia del 1914, sta avvicinando sempre di più Cina e Giappone ad aperte ostilità.
Le similitudini tra l'Europa di un secolo fa e l'Asia Pacifica odierna colpiscono al punto da aver spinto il primo ministro giapponese, Shinzo Abe, a spiazzare i luminari, che recentemente si sono riuniti al World Economic Forum a Davos, paragonando apertamente - e senza concessioni alla diplomazia - la Cina alla Germania e il Giappone alla Gran Bretagna d'inizio secolo XX. Anche se Abe è stato attento a evitare previsioni sull'eventuale scoppio di una guerra tra gli storici rivali, le sue parole hanno messo a disagio la comunità internazionale e spinto molti a esaminare le possibilità che una catastrofe della scala della Grande guerra metta a ferro e fuoco l'Asia Orientale, la regione economicamente più dinamica del mondo.

Alcuni trend geopolitici certi delineano all'orizzonte delle difficoltà. Nella regione si è verificato da poco un rivoluzionario spostamento dell'equilibrio di potere. La Cina ha superato il Giappone come potenza economica. La capacità e il ritmo con cui l'economia cinese cresce hanno consentito a Pechino di incrementare consistentemente la spesa militare. I 148 miliardi di dollari del budget ufficiale cinese per la difesa sono più del doppio dei 65 miliardi giapponesi. Si stima tuttavia che la spesa militare cinese effettiva sia almeno il doppio di quella dichiarata.

Lo spostamento di potere è accompagnato da un drastico acuirsi delle tensioni bilaterali attorno a una serie di punti di attrito. La causa principale del recente deterioramento dei rapporti sino-giapponesi è la disputa territoriale incentrata sulle disabitate isole dell'arcipelago Senkaku/Diaoyu nel Mar della Cina Orientale. È una disputa territoriale di relativa importanza che, però, è lievitata a prova generale della volontà nazionale di affermazione. Entrambe le parti hanno talmente alzato la posta che trovare una soluzione che salvi la faccia ai due contendenti appare ora quasi impossibile.

Nel frattempo, al fine di rafforzare la propria legittimità, lo Stato monopartitico cinese, sentendosi all'interno sempre più minacciato dalle tensioni sociali, da un'economia che rallenta e dalla pressione sostenuta delle forze filo-democratiche, ha continuato a soffiare sul fuoco del nazionalismo. Il fulcro di quello cinese è, purtroppo, la storica aggressione del Giappone contro la Cina. I media cinesi, a controllo statale, insistono da tempo sulla demonizzazione del Giappone. I canali della tv cinese hanno trasmesso, solo nel 2012, più di 70 serie di nuova produzione che hanno come argomento la guerra sino-giapponese (1937-1945). Stando ai sondaggi, l'intensa propaganda anti-giapponese sta suscitando una diffusa antipatia verso il Giappone. Secondo uno studio del Pew Institute di luglio 2013, il Giappone "non piace" al 90 per cento dei cinesi. Questa animosità è ovviamente reciproca. Secondo un sondaggio di agosto 2013 di Genron NPO, un istituto di sondaggi giapponese, la Cina non piace al 98 per cento dei giapponesi.

In questo contesto preoccupante, Pechino ha recentemente rafforzato il sentimento del suo popolo stabilendo una "Zona d'identificazione della difesa aerea cinese" che si sovrappone a quella giapponese e facendo fare rotta sulle isole contestate ad alcune navi della sua Marina. Le due misure aumentano il rischio di un incidentale militare.

La domanda è ora se uno scontro incidentale possa portare a una vera e propria guerra tra Cina e Giappone e la risposta al quesito l'hanno gli Stati Uniti, l'unica potenza in grado di scoraggiare la Cina dal muoversi e di ottenere una reazione misurata dal Giappone. Washington è alleata di Tokyo ed è legalmente obbligata a difendere il suo territorio. Tenendo presente la schiacciante superiorità americana nel mare e nell'aria e sapendo di perdere, per la Cina sarebbe folle lasciarsi coinvolgere in una crisi con gli Stati Uniti. I trasparenti avvertimenti di Washington dovrebbero dunque bastare a tenere a bada Pechino. Tuttavia, la capacità americana di opporre un deterrente ad azioni irresponsabili cinesi non è totale per via della componente di "azzardo morale" che essa implica: il governo giapponese, guidato ora da Abe, un nazionalista convinto e deciso a tenere testa alla Cina, potrebbe agire contando su un intervento americano in qualunque circostanza. Una tale fiducia potrebbe rendere Tokyo meno cauta nel gestire le occasionali provocazioni cinesi. A quel punto, una reazione sbilanciata giapponese sarebbe interpretata da Pechino come prova della determinazione giapponese e della necessità di una risposta ferma.

Questo tipo di dinamica aprirebbe lo scenario nel quale un incidente di poca gravità è in grado di scatenare una crisi e una successiva escalation, perché entrambi gli attori vedrebbero qualsiasi concessione come una umiliazione nazionale.

Richiamando in mente gli eventi che portarono alla Grande Guerra, è inevitabile cogliere le analogie. "La storia non si ripete", avvertì Mark Twain, "ma fa rima". Considerando la catastrofe che seguì a un'altra guerra sino-giapponese, il nostro auspicio è che la storia questa volta nell'Asia Pacifica non faccia nemmeno rima.

traduzione di Guiomar Parada

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
La Grande guerra (1914-1918) fu una catastrofe per l'Occidente. Fece precipitare l'Europa in un massacro e in una distruzione massiccia e senza senso, eppure, un secolo più tardi è ancora attuale la domanda sulla possibilità che un'analoga tragedia colpisca il mondo. La regione dove i dissidi tra grandi potenze potrebbe innescare un'importante guerra è l'Asia Orientale.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
My first ambassadorial post was to Egypt. I have many memories of this ancient and beautiful country. One is the Mena House Hotel, which I visited many times. Situated at the foot of the spectacular Cheops Pyramid, the hotel is the venue that produced the famous Cairo Declaration. It was published on 27 November 1943 after discussions between the leaders of China, Britain and the United States, and was the master plan for rebuilding international order following the war with Nazi Germany and Japan.

The Cairo Declaration was a laudable outcome of the war against both Germany, with its repellent Nazism, and Japan, with its equally repugnant military fascism. It stated in explicit terms that: "all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa (Taiwan) and the Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China. Japan will also be expelled from all other territories she has taken by violence and greed."

Less than two years later the Potsdam Proclamation, released on 26 July 1945, reaffirmed that: "The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out." The Japanese government accepted the Potsdam Proclamation in the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, and pledged to faithfully fulfil its obligations stipulated in the provisions of the Potsdam Proclamation.

All of these facts show that in accordance with the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation and the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, Diaoyu Dao, as affiliated islands of Taiwan, should be returned, together with Taiwan, to China.

However, up to now Japan still obstinately clings to a colonialist mindset. It is turning a blind eye to the international agreements made at the conclusion of World War II by claiming that Diaoyu Dao is Japan's territory. It reveals that Japan has failed to examine its conscience and remains disappointingly unrepentant about its history of military fascism. Moreover, it attempted to deny the outcomes of the war against fascism and challenge the post-war international order.

History shall not be reversed. We must not forget the untold sufferings incurred during World War II. China and Britain are both victims of fascism. We have shared memories and pains. Chinese and British troops fought side by side on the battleground against Japanese military fascism. It is the common responsibility of China and Britain and the entire international community to reaffirm the outcomes of the war against fascism and maintain the post-war international order.

Nazism was born in Germany. On December 7, 1970, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt travelled to Poland and dropped to his knees before the monument to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943. Many in the world were deeply moved by this famous gesture of repentance and apology. The extraordinary courage and sincerity of Germanywon it trust and respect.

After World War II, German and Japanese attitudes form a stark contrast. Unlike Germany, Japan has never seriously reflected on its military fascist past and made a serious apology. Instead, it tried to reverse the history. Such a remorseless attitude has made it difficult for Japan to earn the trust of its neighbours and the forgiveness of people around the world.

Recently Japan has taken a series of provocative steps. In total disregard of the established post World War II agreements, Japan implemented its plan of "purchasing" China's Diaoyu Dao. The so-called purchase of Diaoyu Dao by the Japanese government is illegal and invalid. It can in no way change the fact that Diaoyu Dao is the territory of China.

Historical records show it is an indisputable fact that Diaoyu Dao belongs to China. China's Ming and Qing dynasties had always exercised sovereignty over Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands. Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands were already marked on maps as Chinese territory in the early Ming dynasty. The British authorities supported this sovereignty with maps such as A New Map of China from the Latest Authorities, published in Britain in 1811. Also there is: A Map of China's East Coast: Hong Kong to Gulf of Liao-Tung, compiled by the British Navy in 1877. Both these maps marked Diaoyu Dao as part of China's territory.

In 1895 Japan illegally seized Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands through the first Sino-Japanese war. In 1951 Japan signed the Treaty of San Francisco with the US and a number of other countries, which in effect put the Ryukyu Islands under American administration. It must be stressed that China was excluded from this treaty and islands handed over to the American administration in this treaty did not include Diaoyu Dao.

In 1971 Japan and the US signed the agreement concerning the Ryukyu Islands and the Daito Islands, known as Okinawa Reversion Agreement. This treaty provided that powers of administration over the Ryukyu Islands and Diaoyu Dao would be "returned" to Japan.

The Chinese government has consistently opposed these agreements between Japan and the US that excluded China. So, it should be no surprise that China never recognised them.

In 1972 China-Japan relations normalised. In 1978 China and Japan signed the treaty of peace and friendship. Chinese and Japanese leaders agreed on shelving the Diaoyu Dao issue and waiting for a future settlement. Without such understanding and consensus, progress of Chinese and Japanese relations in the four decades that followed would have been impossible.

This year marks forty years of the normalisation of China and Japan relations. It ought to be a propitious year. The two countries had decided to hold a 'Year of Friendly Exchanges' between Chinese and Japanese People and nearly 600 exchange programmes were planned. All these were shelved following Japan's illegal 'purchase' of Diaoyu Dao. The atmosphere of celebration has gone sour.

Now the situation over Diaoyu Dao issue is escalating. Japan is the only one to blame. Japan does not even admit the existence of a dispute over Dioayu Dao! Such a position is an outright denial of the understanding and agreement reached between China and Japan.

It is imperative that Japan respects history and facts. It is vital that Japan reflects on its mistakes and comes to a clear understanding of the situation. It is critical that Japan displays the political courage to correct its wrongdoings, and respect China's territorial sovereignty.

Liu Xiaoming is Chinese ambassador to Britain

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Diaoyu Dao: history shall not be reversed

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
My first ambassadorial post was to Egypt. I have many memories of this ancient and beautiful country. One is the Mena House Hotel, which I visited many times. Situated at the foot of the spectacular Cheops Pyramid, the hotel is the venue that produced the famous Cairo Declaration.