Jan 7, 2007
There is an interesting piece over at Webdiary by Orville Schell on efforts by Tsuneo Watanabe, the Editor-in-Chief of Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest newspaper, to more fully and honestly detail and acknowledge the reality of Japanese responsibility for aggression and atrocities in World War II and towards China in the Sino-Japanese war.
“Watanabe, who is now in his eighties and served in the Imperial Japanese Army during WWII, was ...
Apr 25, 2006
The modern nation of Australia is very fortunate not to have been seriously impacted by invasion or defeat in war, but there are still millions of Australian individuals and families who have been touched terribly by war in one way or another. If we could find ways to more clearly amplify the individual human and family impact of war, we might be less keen to wage it. ...
Oct 29, 2005
It feels a little bit like I’ve been transported to an alternative universe for the last couple of weeks, where the very immediate and important arguments in Australia are distant and faint and the political disagreements between us are put on hold (mostly) and I got immersed in a continual stream of new and different things (some of which remind me that what’s happening in Australia is a ...
Oct 23, 2005
I heard about Dana Vale’s suggestion that a part of Mornington Peninsula in Victoria be used to recreate the Anzac landing site on the day we left to drive to Gallipoli. I had got a fairly scathing email from some war veterans about it, and it was the subject of a bit of comment amongst members of the delegation while we were on the bus on the way ...
Oct 22, 2005
After leaving Çanakkale and Troy, we caught the ferry back across the Dardanelles and drove back to Istanbul. Our drivers had been going all day and as it’s Ramadan at the moment, they had been fasting since dawn, so at sunset they pulled into the equivalent of a roadhouse to have a meal. Not surprisingly, it was full of many people also ending their day’s fast. Although Turkey ...
Oct 21, 2005
Çanakkale is a smallish town of around 75 000 people, which is also the administrative centre of the province of the same name. The province includes the Gallipoli Peninsula on the other side of the Dardanelles (and also on another continent). We stayed in a hotel on the banks of the Strait, close to its narrowest point. It is only about a mile wide here, and some of ...
Oct 20, 2005
On Wednesday, we drove to Gallipoli, which is about 330 kilometres from Istanbul - about a five hour drive. The highway is fine in parts and not so good in others. If you’re feeling the pinch from the increased price of petrol in Australia, it is over $2.70 a litre in Turkey – although many other things, such as food, are comparatively cheap.
So much has been written and ...
Oct 20, 2005
The Ankara leg of our visit was a little bit afflicted for me by jet lag. Four flights and 28 hours after I checked in at Brisbane airport, I arrived at the hotel in Ankara, along with the rest of the delegation, about 11am.
Ankara is a large sprawling city of several million people. Attractive is not a word which comes to mind when thinking of ways to describe ...
Oct 20, 2005
By virtue of its geography, Turkey tends to often be involved in a range of issues of wider international significance. However, at the moment, it seems to be pivotal in an even greater number of issues than usual, which makes it a particularly interesting time to visit.
It is only a couple of weeks since the decision was made by the EU to formally commence negotiations to enable Turkey ...
