Breaking the silence on burakumin | The Japan Times Online

Breaking the silence on burakumin | The Japan Times Online:
"For those who don't know — and you would be forgiven considering the lack of coverage the issue receives — a buraku is the term used to describe an area where some, but not all, of the residents have ancestral ties to the people placed at the bottom of feudal society in the Edo Period. These people were assigned tasks considered 'tainted' according to Buddhist and Shinto beliefs, such as butchery and leather work, where the killing of and use of animal corpses was involved."

Day Laborers Brave Risks at Japan’s Nuclear Plants - NYTimes.com

Day Laborers Brave Risks at Japan’s Nuclear Plants - NYTimes.com:
"KAZO, Japan — The ground started to buck at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and Masayuki Ishizawa could scarcely stay on his feet. Helmet in hand, he ran from a workers’ standby room outside the plant’s No. 3 reactor, near where he and a group of workers had been doing repair work. He saw a chimney and crane swaying like weeds. Everybody was shouting in a panic, he recalled."

The Battle Over PTSD | This Can't Be Happening

The Battle Over PTSD | This Can't Be Happening:
"There’s a major struggle for meaning going on in America now that centers on war trauma among returning soldiers and veterans of our wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and, now, Libya.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is the current official term for what has plagued soldiers throughout history as they returned from wars to civilian society. PTSD became an official term in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) published by the American Psychiatric Association in 1980, following a period of struggle among psychiatric authorities and activists that focused on the experiences of Vietnam veterans. The DSM is regularly revised and updated."