Free Republic

KUMAMOTO -- Eighteen photos of a deadly World War II air raid that took place in the final days of the conflict on the southwestern Japan city of Kumamoto, the capital of the prefecture of the same name, have been newly discovered.

We'd been living in our brand new home for 2 weeks when the first of 2 killer quakes hit our city . I'd experienced myriad quakes in various parts of Japan during my 30 years of living here , but nothing like these . I really thought it was the end of the world when that first quake struck : the house rocked and shook that strongly . I'm still in a bit of a shock so forgive brevity at this time . My wife and I survived unscathed , but eveything inside the house was destroyed . It'll be...

Japan's Kumamoto earthquake, which took place early on Saturday, was upgraded from a provisional magnitude of 7.2 to 7.3. The temblor was felt across wide swathes of southern Japan and triggered a tsunami warning, although the advisory was later lifted. As the situation in Kumamoto continues to escalate, a second quake registering magnitude-5.8 also struck in the region at 03:55 local time. Prior to that, numerous aftershocks jolted the region that had already been pummeled by a series of quakes and aftershocks striking a day earlier. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's planned trip to the already quake-ravaged region, scheduled for...

The quake was only 10km deep.