Black-spotted Puffer Fish - Japan

Japan uses four styles of writing: Romaji, Kanji, Katakana, and Hiragana. Romaji represents Latin scripted letters. The Kanji system uses the borrowed logographics of the Chinese characters. Katakana and Hiragana styles are syllabic scripts using kanas to represent individual sounds in the Japanese language.

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Arothron nigropunctatos - The black-spotted puffer fish, also known as the dog-faced puffer, has small fins, a feature marking it as a slow moving fish. The puffer has two methods of defense against predators; it can swallow large amounts of water or air to inflate its body into a balloon to present a menacing appearance and create more surface area than the potential predator’s mouth can possibly fit. The puffer fish also secretes a neurotoxin to keep other fish at bay. Some species have sharp spines on the body as a third line of defense.

Japanese Wire Weed - Japan

Sargassum muticum - Japanese wire weed is a fast growing seaweed preferring sheltered rocky areas. It attaches itself through a holdfast, a root-like structure allowing aquatic sessile organisms to anchor themselves into mud, sand or rocks. The seaweed has been distributed far beyond the shores of Japan, usually by accident. When Japanese oysters were imported into the Western Pacific coastal areas during the early 1940’s for the purpose of farming, the wire weed came along.

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Japan is located along the Pacific Rim of Fire, an area of extreme seismic and volcanic activity. There are more than 1,500 tremors recorded in Japan annually. Most are mild and cause no damage, but Japan has suffered a high proportion of devastating earthquakes. In 1923, the Kantō plain was struck by a massive earthquake causing the death of over 150,000 people. The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake measured a devastating 9.0 on the Richter scale; it caused extensive damage and killed 15,000 people.

Historical Flags of Oceania

Although the Philippines were under the control of Spain, the short-lived Republic of Biak-na-Bato was proclaimed as the first Philippine Republic in 1897 by Emilio Aguinaldo. The flag consisted of a disc featuring a human face emitting 24 beams of sunlight. The disc, sans the face, is still retained in the current Philippine flag. The Pacific Island Trust Territory was established by the United Nations and was administrated by the United States from 1947 to 1986. It included the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau. The Republic of Ezo existed from January to June of 1869. Located on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, it was the first Asian state to hold an open election. The Tongan flag was adopted in 1862. In 1864, the Red Cross was formed in Geneva, Switzerland and used the reverse pattern of the Swiss flag in tribute, a design matching the Tongan flag of 1862. Tonga changed its flag in 1866.