Kafū Nagai, 1927
Remember December 8!
On this day the history of the world was changed.
The Anglo-Saxon powers
On this day we’re driven back on East Asian land and sea,
It was their Japan that drove them back,
A tiny country in the Eastern Sea,
Nippon, the Land of the Gods
Ruled over by a living God.
– Nagai Kafū (1879-1959)
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Kafū Nagai (永井 荷風, December 3, 1879 – April 30, 1959) was the pen name of author, playwright, essayist, and diarist Nagai Sōkichi (永井 壮吉). He wrote of life in early 20th-century Tokyo among geishas, prostitutes, cabaret dancers, and other denizens of the city’s lively entertainment districts.