Japanese Alphabet and Charts in Photos

 When I was at George Mason University I took a class called Japan at War. My professor was a fifty two year old Australian woman. She had a tramp stamp on her lower back. She was only our teacher for a few weeks because she developed spinal cancer. I do not know what happened to her, but she was a great teacher.

Anyway, what I remember about her was that she first worked as a nurse in Australia. I believe that down under, this was a five year degree. Then, she went back to school and became fluent in Japanese. I believe she earned two more degrees in Japanese. Other than being a professor at GMU, she also ran a consulting firm, helping others do business in Japan.

I learned a great deal from her about Japanese culture. It is amazing how they industrialized, and reverse engineered British, German and French technology. This was how Japan became a super power in Asia - reverse engineering. They would buy something, take it apart, learn how it worked, rebuild it, making it better.