Japan and its History

 by Graham Hoddinott

I’m calling this talk “Japan and its History”, and we are a “history” group. But as well as history I shall introduce some pre-history, meaning before “recorded history”, before writing systems were invented. I will also mention a few aspects of Japanese culture or art, and so on. A warning about dates though: the more sources I have looked at for Japan the more variation I have found, particularly in the first millennium. I’ve tried to use the most up-to-date findings, I’ll mention in particular recent discoveries due to DNA research.

Destiny knocks - The life and love of Leda Firley (nee Comerio)

 as told to her daughter; Vivien Leonard 

It was December 1945 when we first met.  I was 26 years old and living in northern Italy in a small town called Montebelluna with my mother and one sister.  My father had passed away just a year before and we lived comfortably on the wealth from the knitwear factory he had owned and run.  The war had ended not long before and it was a time when homes were still being requisitioned for American and Polish soldiers to live with Italian families.  The Polish soldiers could not go back to Poland because the Russians were now in occupation.

 

The Getty Villa

by Brian Hudson

To access Brian's talk on the Getty Villa, please click on the link below:

The Getty Villa

N.B. All the photographs in the presentation were taken by Brian, so there are no copyright issues.