The Boshin War (‘The War of the Year of the　Dragon’), which was fought between the new imperial army of the restored Meiji Emperor and the supporters of the former Tokugawa Shogun, began with the battle of Toba-Fushimi in January 1868 and ended with the fall of Hakodate on 29 June 1869. The operations of the war that took place within the area of modern Akita prefecture illustrate in microcosm the huge changes that took place in the military life of Japan at the time. This is presented through the experiences of four domain leaders in Akita whose responses to the new situation varied considerably but had in common a personal interpretation of the ancient but long-dormant tradition of the samurai. Even though they were fighting for the imperialist cause their motivation was not that of the undying loyalty to the Emperor that was to become a hallmark of the new Japan but a blend of nostalgia and self-interest that owed more to their samurai past.

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Two incidents in 2010, brought South and North Korea close to war. In April North Korea’s navy allegedly sank a South Korean naval vessel, killing more than forty sailors. Then in November the North Korean army bombarded a small South Korean occupied island, killing a small number of civilians and military personnel. This paper examines, as best as can be done given North Korea’s preference for secrecy, the possible motives behind Pyongyang’s provocative actions and whether South Korea’s policy toward the North contributed to the situation. The author conjectures that North Korea’s leader condoned these actions to ensure the North Korean military’s support for his son’s succession. The author presents evidence that demonstrates the military’s increasing influence on policy in Pyongyang. He points out that both incidents’ genesis can be traced to long standing disputes between the two Koreas. Unfortunately, the author concludes, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s discarding of North-South agreements achieved by his predecessors to resolve these issues intensified tensions that contributed to the two incidents.

This paper is an expanded and revised version of a similar study first published in Japanese in the Japanese monthly journal, Gaiko. After revision, the paper was presented at an international conference held at the University of British Columbia in August 2011. There scholars from The Two Koreas - Is War Inevitable? 88 North and South Korea reviewed and discussed this version of the paper. Predictably, they could only agree to disagree, for very different reasons, regarding the causes for the incidents. They did, however, express optimism that the resumption of North-South Korea dialogue could prevent the eruption of a second Korean War.

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This paper reviews traditional pitch notation systems used in Japanese language education. It also introduces a new system that overcomes most of the drawbacks experienced in the use of the traditional systems. Traditional systems have two major problems when used to teach Japanese as a Foreign Language. One is that learners often misinterpret the markings used in these systems. For example, they tend to over-pronounce such marked syllables. Another is that the markings used in the traditional systems are difficult to apply when using ordinary computer programs. The proposed pitch notation system attempts to solve these problems by underlining those words pronounced with a descending pitch.

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