How did the USA convince the public that Japan was an ally during the Cold War?

It's strange, just from World War II to the Cold War Japan went from being America's biggest enemy in Asia to biggest ally, while China went the opposite way. Considering anti-Japanese sentiment was really high during World War II, how did the government convince Americans that Japan was an ally?

2 Answers 2017-08-21

I recently heard that in the time of the prophet Mohammed there were known individuals who would today be called 'transexuals'. How would they be treated and what were their circumstances?

1 Answers 2017-08-21

How did the feudal system develop and thrive for so many centuries?

I can surmise that the conflicts after the fall of rome made for a system like feudalism but how did it manage to get such a large amount of the population so accepting of roles little better than slaves?

1 Answers 2017-08-21

Were Japanese officers in WW2 disproportionately derived from members of the former Samurai-class or was the samurai-ethos something that had taken hold among all the Japanese?

1 Answers 2017-08-21

It's 17th Century Western Europe and I've just been (falsely) accused of being a witch. Can I expect a reasonably fair trial or am I doomed to be executed. If I do have the luxury of a trial, what would most likely be the best course of defense?

Would I have access to an attorney that would do a reasonably good job of defending me? What are my chances of being acquitted?

2 Answers 2017-08-21

I recently found that my Grandmother's Great Uncle ran away from his home in Arkansas at the outbreak of the civil war to fight for the Union. How common was it for people from Confederate states to fight for the Union or vice versa?

1 Answers 2017-08-21

What do the markings on this coin mean?

Hey there, I found this coin at a yard sale that looks like its Spanish and was wondering if the markings are of any significance (and if it would be worth anything). Thanks for the help!

2 Answers 2017-08-21

Did racist European attitudes towards Africans help drive the Transatlantic Slave Trade? Or did those attitudes come about later as a way to justify the slave trade?

1 Answers 2017-08-21

Why did the Shogun lose in the Boshin War?

Both sides of the war were partially modernizing, having access to the latest firearms and foreign help. So it wasn't exactly a fight between modern vs primitive as some people seem to think it was (thanks to The Last Samurai). What were the factors favoring an Imperial victory?

1 Answers 2017-08-21

Did ancient civilisations ever discover dinosaur bones? If so, did they believe them to be the remains of mythical creatures like dragons?

1 Answers 2017-08-21

What did past civilizations think of solar eclipses?

1 Answers 2017-08-21

How did ancient people react to eclipses?

Especially with religion involved, it seems like blocking out the sun would be a rather significant event in the past (still is today).

2 Answers 2017-08-21

Settlement patterns of Classical Greece?

It's pretty well known that during the Classical period, Greece was by and large divided into city states, which numbered ~700 at the time of the Persian invasion IIRC. Did the cities themselves comprise most of the Greek population at the time, or did most people live outside the cities in small, rural villages, like most agrarian civilizations prior to the Industrial Revolution? Do we know how the Greek countryside was peopled in Antiquity?

1 Answers 2017-08-21

How did southern Arabia support life in ancient times without having rivers nor a so fertile territory ?

1 Answers 2017-08-21

Mental health in the medieval Muslim world

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1 Answers 2017-08-21

What did people in ancient times think about solar eclipses?

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1 Answers 2017-08-21

A lot of Andalusian architecture stayed after the Reconquista--did many Arabic designs survive after the Norman conquest of Sicily?

You can still see a lot of architecture and design from Muslim Iberia well after the Christian conquests. Sicily changed hands several times through the middle ages, so I was wondering what arts and "interior design" aesthetics stuck around even after the Normans took the Emirate of Sicily. I know a lot of place-names and surnames stuck, but I don't know much about the material culture.

2 Answers 2017-08-21

Back before we knew not to look at the sun during a solar eclipse in the dark ages era, would there just suddenly be a bunch of people that would go blind or have vision problems whenever there was a solar eclipse?

1 Answers 2017-08-21

Persecution of Buddhists during the Holocaust

While reading over the wikipedia page for Holocaust victims , I noticed that Buddhists were listed as one of the non-Jewish groups persecuted by the Nazis. However, subsequent google searches on "Buddhists in the Holocaust/Buddhist Persecution in the Holocaust/etc." yielded almost no relevant source material.

So I'm left wondering: why were Buddhists targeted by the Nazis? The iconic Nazi Swastika itself is a symbol often seen in Buddhist culture, so I'm not understanding why they would be viewed as threatening or degenerative to the Aryan race, as so often was the Nazi justification for murdering innocent people.

1 Answers 2017-08-21

Was there any pushback to Sykes–Picot Agreement in the West?

It just on its face seems like such a bad idea, did folks warn of possible issues at the time?

1 Answers 2017-08-21

How could a tall ship repair its broken masts (after a storm, or a battle) in the middle of the ocean?

IIRC (though it’s been awhile since I watched Master and Commander) there was a scene where HMS Surprise escapes a storm but the masts were broken in the aftermath, and the entire crew was able to repair them and get them to function properly again as if they were brand new.

What tools were needed, and what was needed to be done for the broken masts to be able to be reattached?

2 Answers 2017-08-21

Is this a uniform from WWI, WWII or something else?

After getting in touch with distant family for the first time this week, I thought I'd dig out a few photographs that I inherited from my grandparents and their parents again in hope that they could help me identify a few of them.
Two photos of one person in his uniform (
https://imgur.com/a/Zeypz), written "Uncle Bill RAF" on the back came up. I sent them over and he didn't seem to know who they were, but I'm trying to identify what war the photos were taken during by the clothing - if any war at all - in hope I can narrow down a few possibilities!
He would have most likely been on the side of the British.

Thank you!

3 Answers 2017-08-21

Did American vehicular companies like Ford ever manufacture any military vehicles during World War II?

I know that Rolls Royce helped England develop engines for their aircraft and such, but I have never heard of any American companies helping during World War II. This felt like the best place to post to get an accurate answer.

2 Answers 2017-08-21

How did Ethiopia survive so many empires ? From the roman empire to the islamic caliphates to the ottoman empire everyone could've attack Ethiopia.

They even had their fair share of succes defending against colonial empires before Italy annexed it in 1937.

3 Answers 2017-08-21

Why are the Balkans so much more ethnically diverse than other parts of Europe?

Croats. Bosnians. Serbs. Albanians. Slovenians. It seems like so many different ethnicities call this small region their home. Why is this region so much more ethnically diverse as opposed to other parts of Europe?

1 Answers 2017-08-21

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