広島の原爆の日は８月６日。長崎は８月９日。そして終戦の日が８月１５日。日本にとって８月は、死者を思う季節である。 本当なら今年、７５年めの原爆の日を、私たちは東京オリンピックの期間中に迎えるはずだった。しかし、新型コロナウイルスの蔓延によりオリンピックは延期され、思いがけない静けさの中で人々は、死者のために黙祷を捧げることになった。 １９６４年の東京オリンピック大会で聖火の最終ランナーを務めたのは、１９歳の、無名の陸上選手だった。その青年は、原爆投下の当日、広島で生を受けていた。真っ白いランニングシャツと短パンを身に着け、聖火台に続く長い階段を駆け上がる彼の姿は、実に清潔で、均整がとれ、全身に若々しさが満ちあふれていた。この映像を目にするたび、敗戦からわずか１９年で、世界中の人々が集まるスポーツの祭典が日本で催された、という現実に驚かされる。人類が経験したことのない徹底的な破壊の中から誕生

Meredith Wild writing on the porch of her Destin, Fla., home. Her fledgling publishing company, Waterhouse Press, is off to a promising start.Credit...Meggan Haller for The New York Times One chilly morning this month, Meredith Wild, the best-selling romance novelist, was sitting in her library in Destin, Fla., wrapped in a loose black sweater in front of a crackling fire. Most mornings, Ms. Wild

At a demonstration in Amman, Youssef al-Kasasbeh, right, the father of the Jordanian air force pilot captured by Islamic State militants in Syria, called for Jordan to make the exchange.Credit...European Pressphoto Agency AMMAN, Jordan — The Jordanian government agreed on Wednesday to release a convicted terrorist in exchange for the freeing of an air force pilot captured by Islamic State militant

Three physicists have been awarded the Nobel Prize for revolutionizing the way the world is lighted. The 2014 physics award went to Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano of Japan and Shuji Nakamura of the University of California, Santa Barbara, for “the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes, which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources.” The three scientists, working toget

Scribd engineers, above, at work in San Francisco.Credit...Peter DaSilva for The New York Times SAN FRANCISCO — Before the Internet, books were written — and published — blindly, hopefully. Sometimes they sold, usually they did not, but no one had a clue what readers did when they opened them up. Did they skip or skim? Slow down or speed up when the end was in sight? Linger over the sex scenes? A

Much of the speculation about the future of news focuses on the business model: How will we generate the revenues to pay the people who gather and disseminate the news? But the disruptive power of the Internet raises other profound questions about what journalism is becoming, about its essential character and values. This week’s column is a conversation — a (mostly) civil argument — between two ve

TOKYO — In a widely watched decision, a court in Kyoto on Monday ordered a far-right group to pay $120,000 in damages to an elementary school for ethnic Koreans after the group staged demonstrations using slogans that the court characterized as racist. The ruling, by the Kyoto District Court, is one of the first court decisions in Japan to address a recent proliferation of street protests using ha

In Promoting His City for 2020 Games, Tokyo’s Bid Chairman Tweaks Others With less than five months to go before the International Olympic Committee chooses a city to host the 2020 Summer Games, the three remaining bidders — Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo — are increasing their efforts to win over delegates and the public. The Olympic committee’s rules prohibit bid committee members from directly crit

But competing narratives already began emerging Sunday. On the feisty microblogging site Sina Weibo, postings said that the minister, Sheng Guangzu, who took over this year when his predecessor was fired for corruption, had been cornered by angry journalists after he dodged interview requests. Other reports on the site said the ministry was burying parts of the wrecked trains near the site, prompt