Ah, this wilderness of summer grasses. Here, too, slumbered yesteryear's warriors to dream.
Basho, a 17th century Japanese
troubadour
The summer grasses are especially lush where it is always summertime: Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Tinian, Luzon, Iwo JimaWorld War II battle sites where hundreds of thousands of Japanese soldiers died in a losing cause. But rather than rely on troubadours to describe the battlegrounds, many Japanese are making the grim journey to these islands in the sun. Not incidentally they have spawned a lucrative sideline for Japan's booming tourist industrysenseki jumpai, or battlefield pilgrimages.
The Japanese, of course, are not alone in paying homage to...
