Mes: agosto 2019

Tokyo — Seventy-four years after Japan’s defeat in World War II, the world’s third-largest economy is in the midst of a quiet military buildup, at U.S. urging. President Trump’s visit to Japan over Memorial Day weekend will culminate with him becoming the first U.S. president in modern history to set foot on a Japanese warship. Mr. Trump will tour the JS Kaga, one of the two largest warships in Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force. In a controversial move, Tokyo recently decided to refit the Kaga and a sister ship to carry F-35B Strike Fighters — effectively creating Japan’s first aircraft carriers since World War II, the first since the attack on Pearl Harbor. Now, after almost 75 years of peace, Mr. Trump’s visit will be seen as a display of military solidarity that has long been sought by Japan’s leaders. Professor Stephen Nagy, international relations scholar at Japan’s International Christian University, said he thinks the photo-op is intended as much for the American public as for Japan’s neighbors China and North Korea. “Over the past two years, three years, President Trump has conveyed a message that alliance partners really are leeching off the United States,” Nagy said. “Prime Minister (Shinzo) Abe would like to send a strong signal that no, that’s not the case, that the Japanese people and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces are stepping up to the plate and...

The runaway bestseller, “The Help,” is a look back at the relationships between white women and their black maids in Mississippi in the early 1960s. The book was written by Kathryn Stockett, and the film version premieres today. The author has sparked a lot of controversy because she’s white, yet wrote her novel from the perspective of an African-American housekeeper. If that’s not unusual enough, she let her best friend, a relative unknown, direct the film. Stockett’s explosive novel is set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, a time of segregation and sit-ins, CBS News Correspondent Bill Whitaker reports. It’s the story of a rebellious Southern belle who collaborates with black maids to write a book pulling the covers off the complex, often painful relationships between a pampered, privileged class of white women and the black women who served them. “The Help” has been a bestseller for more than 100 weeks, and the movie has A-list actors, including Viola Davis and Emma Stone. Stockett and the film’s director, Tate Taylor, are lifelong friends who grew up in Jackson, Miss., raised by black housekeepers. “The Help” is her first book and his first major motion picture. Stockett reluctantly showed Taylor her manuscript after 60 literary agents had rejected it. Taylor said of her book, “You think you know your best friend so well, and I...