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Takahata, Isao

(Encyclopedia)Takahata, Isao, 1935–2018, Japanese animator. One the most influential directors of Japanese animated films (anime), he joined Tokyo's Toei animation studio in 1959. His first feature film, Hols: Pr...

Ohira, Masayoshi

(Encyclopedia)Ohira, Masayoshi, 1910–80, Japanese political leader, prime minister (1978–80) of Japan. After serving in the house of representatives, he became foreign minister (1962–64, 1972–74) and minist...

Fortune, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Fortune, Robert, 1813–80, British botanist. He traveled in Asia for the Royal Horticultural Society and later for the East India Company and brought back to England a number of chrysanthemums, the J...

Takaoka

(Encyclopedia)Takaoka täkäˈôkä [key], city (1990 pop. 175,466), Toyama prefecture, W central Honshu, Japan, on the Sho River. A center for the Japanese aluminum industry, Takaoka also produces paper, copper, a...

Nakasone, Yasuhiro

(Encyclopedia)Nakasone, Yasuhiro yäˌso͝ohēˈrō näˌkäsōˈnā [key], 1918–2019, Japanese political leader and prime minister (1982–87). He served in the Diet after 1946. A political ally of Kakuei Tanaka...

ronin

(Encyclopedia)ronin rōˈnĭn [key], in Japanese history, masterless samurai. Ronin were retainers who were deprived of their place in the usual loyalty patterns of Japanese feudalism. The daimyo they had served mi...

D'Aquino, Iva Toguri

(Encyclopedia)D'Aquino, Iva Toguri, 1916–2006, American citizen of Japanese descent, best-known of some dozen women who, during World War II, made English propaganda broadcasts to American troops on Radio Tokyo; ...

Kahn, Herman

(Encyclopedia)Kahn, Herman kän [key], 1922–83, American military strategist. b. Bayonne, N.J. After graduate work in physics at the California Institute of Technology, he joined the Rand Corporation. Unlike scho...

Kuril Islands

(Encyclopedia)Kuril Islands kyo͝orˈēlz, kyo͝orēlzˈ [key], Jap. Chishima-Retto, Rus. Kurilskiye Ostrova, island chain, c.6,020 sq mi (15,590 sq km), Sakhalin region, E Russia. They stretch c.775 mi (1,250 km) ...

Honda, Soichiro

(Encyclopedia)Honda, Soichiro, 1906–91, Japanese automobile executive. A mechanic and race car driver, he was a self-taught engineer. Honda founded a motorcycle company in the 1940s and began producing cars in th...