By Carolina Ruiz What do climate change, vaccines, the roundness of the earth, the Holocaust, atrocities by the Japanese military during the Second World War, and President Barack Obama's birth certificate have in common? Answer: These issues all serve as flash points of denial. If you observe contemporary politics closely, you will have probably heard about these cases of denial before. In spite of overwhelming scientific evidence, the presence of artefacts, historical recor

By Carolina Ruiz In a 10-page letter addressed to San Francisco's first black female Mayor, London Breed, the Mayor of Osaka, Hirofumi Yoshimura, ended Osaka's "sister city" ties with San Francisco on October 2, 2018. San Francisco and Osaka have been "sister cities" since October 7, 1957 and if not for Osaka's decision to break ties, would have celebrated their 61st anniversary of friendship and exchange. Read media coverage about it here In his letter, Mayor Yoshimura objec

By Carolina Ruiz This regular section of the new ALPHA Newsletter will alternately feature Resources for Educators and Researchers called "Staff Picks," and "Stories from the Archive." Staff Picks will include resources (instructional material, research and/or teaching aides) that come highly recommended by the ALPHA Team. Sometimes they will feature tried and tested primary sources that ALPHA has used in its education work, but sometimes we will also feature compelling conte

By Tomer Zaidman, ALPHA Summer Intern, 2018 In May 2018, Tomer spent two weeks in Nanjing as an overseas intern of ALPHA Education. Apart from conducting research about the Safety Zone for his IB History assignment, Tomer also collated a list of books that he would highly recommend for first time readers on the topic of the Nanjing massacre. We asked Tomer to share his thoughts and impressions of the Museum and Memorial. In this reflection Tomer is conscious about the geopoli