
Located in Broome – a pearling and tourist town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia – the Broome Japanese Cemetery is an interesting piece of local history. It is a tribute to the contribution that the Japanese made to Broome and it’s pearling industry and also a sentimental reminder of the dangers of the early days of pearl diving.
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A submission to the September 2011 J-Festa with the theme “Events in Japan“.
The Namamugi Incident was a samurai assault on foreign nationals in Japan on September 14, 1862, which resulted in the bombardment of Kagoshima in 1863, during the Late Tokugawa shogunate. It started out with a samurai attack on British nationals, ended up with the British engaging war on a province of Japan and has an interesting side piece on how the Japanese national flag was adopted.

Body of Charles Richardson, 1862
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Tags: anglo-satsuma war, charles lennox richardson, daimyō, gaijin, hinomaru, history, japan, kagoshima, namamugi, samurai, satsuma, shimazu hisamitsu, shogun, yokohama
A dying breed of big fifties revivalists the Tokyo Rockabilly Club have attained cult icon notoriety for their highly distinctive combination of Elvis hair, yakuza tattoos and predisposition to publicly jive to 50s rock ’n’ roll. Their classic greaser look is inspired by the Japanese street culture, known as “rokabiri-zoku” (the rockabilly tribe), that is modeled on the American rock ‘n’ roll movement of the mid-1950s.
Image source: Michael John Grist
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Tags: elvis, gothic, greaser, harajuku, japan, lolita, music, peter bjorn and john, pompadour, quiff, rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly, rokabiri-zoku, takenoko-zoku, tōkyō, tōkyō rockabilly club, yoyogi park