Monthly Archives: August 2011
Half the People of Belarus Killed or Deported in WW2
From Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, by Timothy Snyder (Basic Books, 2010), Kindle Loc. 4671-4686 (p. 250): Of the nine million people who were on the territory of Soviet Belarus in 1941, some 1.6 million were killed by the … Continue reading
Theatre of the Macabre in Minsk
From Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, by Timothy Snyder (Basic Books, 2010), Kindle Loc. 4205-53 (pp. 225ff): Minsk was transformed by the Germans into a kind of macabre theater, in which they could act out the ersatz victory of … Continue reading
Uniqueness of the Minsk Ghetto
From Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, by Timothy Snyder (Basic Books, 2010), Kindle Loc. 4295-4349 (p. 231ff): Minsk was an unusual city, a place whose social structure defied the Nazi mind as well as German experience in occupied Poland. … Continue reading
Wordcatcher Tales: Japanese Fish Names
During our recent travels to far-outlying corners of Japan we came across several local specialties that I had never heard of before. When I solicit the names for new dishes in Japanese, I often end up learning new fish names … Continue reading
POW Extermination Camps on the Eastern Front
From Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, by Timothy Snyder (Basic Books, 2010), Kindle Locs. 3362-76, 3409-40, 3501-18 (pp. 176, 179, 183): When the Wehrmacht transported Soviet prisoners by train, it used open freight cars, with no protection from the … Continue reading
Stalin’s Great Terror as Nationalist Counterrevolution
From Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, by Timothy Snyder (Basic Books, 2010), Kindle Loc. 2120-2174 (pp. 107-108): In these years of the Popular Front, the Soviet killings and deportations went unnoticed in Europe. Insofar as the Great Terror was … Continue reading
Wordcatcher Tales: Gyorai ‘fish thunder’
One of the most fun things about exploring far-outlying places in Japan is the conversations you fall into. We had several such conversations in Tsuruga, the Japan Sea port city closest to Osaka and Kyoto, which for that reason became … Continue reading
Japanese Hopes for Germany, 1940
From Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, by Timothy Snyder (Basic Books, 2010), Kindle Loc. 3152-77 (p. 164): Thirteen months after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact had alienated Tokyo from Berlin, German-Japanese relations were reestablished on the basis of a military alliance. … Continue reading
Stalin’s Fears of Japan and Poland, 1937-1939
From Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, by Timothy Snyder (Basic Books, 2010), Kindle Locs. 2094-2112, 2285-2321 (pp. 105, 116-117): In 1937 Japan seemed to be the immediate threat. Japanese activity in east Asia had been the justification for the … Continue reading
Wordcatcher Tales: Tetchan, Mitchan, Noritetsu, Toritetsu
Last month Mr. & Mrs. Outlier made good use of our Japan Rail passes to visit several of the more far-outlying places on Japan’s extensive rail network. We flew in and out of Fukuoka, so we started with JR Kyushu, … Continue reading
