Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi (1911–1943) was a surgeon in the Imperial
Japanese Army during World War II. A devout Seventh-day Adventist,
Tatsuguchi studied medicine and was licensed as a physician in the
United States. He returned to Japan to practice medicine at the Tokyo
Adventist Sanitarium. In 1941, he was conscripted as an acting medical
officer, and was later sent to Attu Island, Alaska, which had been
occupied by Japanese forces in October 1942. The U.S. Army landed on the
island in May 1943, and throughout the resulting battle, Tatsuguchi kept
a diary recording the events of the battle and his struggle to care for
the wounded in his field hospital. He was killed on the battle's final
day. His diary was recovered and translated, and copies were widely
disseminated in the US after the battle. The American public was
intrigued by a Christian, American-trained doctor serving with Japanese
forces and by his apparent participation in assisting with the deaths of
wounded Japanese soldiers. Excerpts from the diary have been widely
quoted in Western historical accounts of the battle, especially his
final entry in which he recorded a farewell message to his family.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Nobuo_Tatsuguchi>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
627:
Muslim–Quraish Wars: A confederation of tribes began an
ultimately unsuccessful siege of Yathrib (now Medina) against Muhammad
and his army.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Trench>
1854:
U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry (Japanese depiction
pictured) and the Tokugawa shogunate signed the Convention of Kanagawa,
forcing the opening of Japanese ports to American trade.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_of_Kanagawa>
1910:
Six English towns amalgamated to form a single county borough
called Stoke-on-Trent, the first union of its type.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation_of_Stoke-on-Trent>
1931:
TWA Flight 599 crashed in Chase County, Kansas, US, and killed
eight people, including football coach Knute Rockne, stimulating
advances in aircraft design and development.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_599>
1964:
Brazilian Armed Forces led an overthrow of Brazilian President
João Goulart and established a military government that would last for
21 years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Brazilian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
wry:
1. Turned away, contorted (of the face or body).
2. Dryly humorous; sardonic or ironic.
3. Twisted, bent, crooked.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wry>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
 Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the
dialectic between the two. A constant coming and going: wisdom lies in
the momentary.
--Octavio Paz
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Octavio_Paz>