by Philip FONG HIROSHIMA, Japan (AFP) — Japan on Thursday marked 75 years since the world’s first atomic bomb attack, with the coronavirus pandemic forcing a scaling back of ceremonies to remember the victims. Survivors, relatives and a handful of foreign dignitaries attended this year’s main event in Hiroshima to pray for those killed or wounded in the bombing and call for world peace. But the general public was kept away, with the ceremony instead […]
Tag: WWII
1,800 evacuated as France defuses British WWII bomb
RENNES, France (AFP) — Some 1,800 people were ordered to evacuate their homes in northwest France on Sunday as a bomb squad defused a British bomb from World War II, officials said. The 220-kilogram (485-pound) bomb was found in late June during construction work near the center of Rouen in Normandy. Residents living within a 270-meter (nearly 900-foot) radius of the site was told to leave the area early Sunday ahead of the operation, which […]
Holocaust survivor opens art museum in hometown Vilnius
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AFP) — Painter and Holocaust survivor Samuel Bak on Monday opened a museum of his allegorical work inspired by Jewish history in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, more than half a century after he held his first exhibition as a nine-year-old inside its wartime ghetto. As a boy he was sent to live in the ghetto after the German Nazis occupied the city in 1941 during World War II. He survived — unlike most of his […]
Dunkirk battles to stay at no. 1
Reuters — Christopher Nolan’s World War Two drama ‘Dunkirk’ won the battle at the North American box office for a second week. The film earned more than $28.1 million (USD) this weekend, according to boxofficemojo.com. ‘Dunkirk’ has earned more than $102 million over the past two weeks. The animated feature ‘The Emoji Movie’ debuted at number two with $25.6 million. The number three movie, ‘Girls Trip,’ earned another $20 million this weekend for a two-week […]
Trudeau says Canada ‘was born’ at French battle as he marks centenary
by Guy JACKSON Agence France Presse VIMY, France (AFP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country “was born here” as he led commemorations in France on Sunday for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. The battle, which started on April 9, 1917, was one of the defining moments of World War I and a founding moment in Canada’s history as Canadian troops fought under Canadian command for the first time. […]
Japan’s Abe in Hawaii to visit Pearl Harbor with Obama
HONOLULU, United States (AFP) — Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived in Hawaii on Monday ahead of a symbolic meeting with President Barack Obama at the site of the Pearl Harbor attack. Japanese leaders have visited Pearl Harbor before, but Abe will be the first to go to the US Arizona Memorial, the wreck where 1,177 US personnel died. Tuesday’s visit comes 75 years after Japan’s December 1941 attack on the base of the US […]
Putin, Abe to take fresh stab at WWII island row
NAGATO, Russia (AFP) — Russia and Japan kick off a summit Thursday aimed at reaching a deal over a group of small islands that have prevented the countries from formally ending their World War II hostilities. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will host Russian President Vladimir Putin in the former’s ancestral city of Nagato in hopes of achieving a breakthrough over the territory off Japan’s northern coast seized by Soviet troops in 1945. The four […]
Hommage to Czech volunteers fallen in WWII defence of the Philippines
Following the Japanese attacks on the Philippines in December 1941 the entire community of the Czechs in Manila volunteered to join the ranks with the Philippine and US forces as their own homeland was already occupied by the ally of Japan, the Nazi Germany as they wanted to hold off the forthcoming Japanese invasion. They did this despite assurances it was only a matter of time before U.S. forces would succumb to the invading Japanese […]
Painting in Dutch royal collection was Nazi loot: official report
(Reuters) – The Dutch Royal Family owns a painting by a Dutch master that was looted during by the Nazis during Germany’s occupation of the Netherlands in World War Two, according to a report published on Tuesday. “One painting was found where there were indications of involuntary loss of possession during the German occupation,” the government said in a statement after an inquiry commissioned by the Royal Family that examined tens of thousands of paintings […]





