Despite my working knowledge before embarking to Europe, the possibility of coming across Japanese artifacts while in London had never crossed my mind. There were multiple pieces throughout the various museums we went to, and so I made a personal side quest for myself; I would try to read as much of the Japanese on the various flags, posters, and notes as I could.
Japanese propaganda picture.
Japan often turns a blind eye to its involvement in World War II. This could be due to a plethora of reasons, but this means that there are very few memorials in Japan for the war. Posters like ones above show clear imagery of the Air Force. I sadly was unable to read any of the text here.
Notebook containing basic Japanese symbols. The text on the top is various katakana while the lower half is kanji.
Bletchley Park housed some of the brightest individuals, and they had to translate from languages that most of them would not have understood. This led to notebooks like these being written. This was the first instance that I was able to read the Japanese on the notebooks. The notebook contains katakana and kanji, and it’s interesting to see how some of them are slightly different.
Flag carried by kamikaze pilots. The kanji often held special poems the pilot would choose.
I love Japan, and I love learning Japanese. Learning languages is something that you must constantly work at, so being able to learn about World War II and exercise my Japanese skills has just propelled my experience so far while traveling in Europe.