title: Chesapeake Bay

text: Two interesting points that arise from comparing these two sites at opposite ends of the Bay are their tidal characteristics - semi-diurnal tide for CBBT and mixed tide for Baltimore (due to resonance in the Bay) - and the differences in amplitude (due to dissipation in the Bay).


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: The Bay is well-known for its seafood, especially blue crabs, clams, and oysters. In the middle of the 20th century, the Bay supported 9,000 full-time watermen, according to one account. Today, the body of water is less productive than it used to be because of runoff from urban areas (mostly on the Western Shore) and farms (especially on the Eastern Shore and in the Susquehanna River watershed), over-harvesting, and invasion of foreign species.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: The plentiful oyster harvests led to the development of the skipjack, the state boat of Maryland, which is the only remaining working boat type in the United States still under sail power. Other characteristic bay-area workboats include sail-powered boats such as the log canoe, the pungy, the bugeye, and the motorized Chesapeake Bay deadrise, the state boat of Virginia.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: In addition to harvesting wild oysters, oyster farming is a growing industry in the Bay. Oyster aquaculture is passive in that the Bay provides all the natural oyster food needed, making it an environmentally-friendly practice in contrast to other kinds of fish farming. Oyster farms provide jobs as well as a natural effort for filtering excess nutrients from the water in an effort to reduce the effects of eutrophication pollution (too much algae). The Chesapeake Bay Program promotes oyster restoration projects to reduce the amount of nitrogen compounds entering the Chesapeake Bay.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: There are numerous ways to cook and eat oysters, as well as recipes and sauces to accompany oyster dishes. One account:


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: The Bay is famous for its rockfish, a regional name for striped bass. Once on the verge of extinction, rockfish have made a significant comeback because of legislative action that put a moratorium on rockfishing, which allowed the species to re-populate. Rockfish can now be fished in strictly controlled and limited quantities.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: Other popular recreational fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay include shad, cobia, croaker, and redfish, winter flounder, and summer flounder. Recently, non-native blue catfish have proliferated in tributaries like the James River and may be moving to other areas of the Bay. A commercial fishery exists for menhaden, too oily for human consumption but instead used for bait, fish oil, and livestock feed.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: The Chesapeake Bay is a main feature for tourists who visit Maryland and Virginia each year. Fishing, crabbing, swimming, boating, kayaking, and sailing are extremely popular activities enjoyed on the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. As a result, tourism has a notable impact on Maryland's economy. One report suggested that Annapolis was an appealing spot for families, water sports and boating. Commentator Terry Smith spoke about the Bay's beauty:


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: The Chesapeake Bay plays an important role in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania's economies, in addition to the ecosystem. The nature-based recreation of wildlife, boating, and ecotourism are dependent on the Clean Water Act (CWA), that was enacted in order to maintain a polluted-free Bay. In 2006, "roughly eight million wildlife watchers spent $636 million, $960 million, and $1.4 billion in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania." -Carrie Grisham, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, 2009


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: In colonial times, simple cooking techniques were used to create one pot meals like ham and potato casserole, clam chowder, or stews with common ingredients like oysters, chicken or venison. When John Smith landed in Chesapeake in 1608 he wrote: "The fish were so thick, we attempted to catch them with frying pans". Common regional ingredients in the local cuisine of Chesapeake included terrapins, smoked hams, blue crab, shellfish, local fish, game meats and various species of waterfowl. Blue crab continues to be an especially popular regional specialty.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: In the 1970s, the Chesapeake Bay was found to contain one of the planet's first identified marine dead zones, where waters were so depleted of oxygen that they were unable to support life, resulting in massive fish kills. In 2010 the bay's dead zones were estimated to kill 75,000 tons of bottom-dwelling clams and worms each year, weakening the base of the estuary's food chain and robbing the blue crab in particular of a primary food source. Crabs are sometimes observed to amass on shore to escape pockets of oxygen-poor water, a behavior known as a "crab jubilee". Hypoxia results in part from large algal blooms, which are nourished by the runoff of residential, farm and industrial waste throughout the watershed. A 2010 report criticized Amish farmers for having cows that "generate heaps of manure that easily washes into streams and flows onward into the Chesapeake Bay".


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: The pollution entering the bay has multiple components that contribute to the algal bloom, principally the nutrients phosphorus and nitrogen. The algae prevents sunlight from reaching the bottom of the bay while alive and deoxygenates the bay's water when it dies and rots. Soil erosion and runoff of sediment into the bay, exacerbated by devegetation, construction and the prevalence of pavement in urban and suburban areas, also block vital sunlight. The resulting loss of aquatic vegetation has depleted the habitat for much of the bay's animal life. Beds of eelgrass, the dominant variety in the southern Chesapeake Bay, have shrunk by more than half there since the early 1970s. Overharvesting, pollution, sedimentation and disease have turned much of the bay's bottom into a muddy wasteland.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: One particularly harmful source of toxicity is "Pfiesteria piscicida", which can affect both fish and humans. "Pfiesteria" caused a small regional panic in the late 1990s when a series of large blooms started killing large numbers of fish while giving swimmers mysterious rashes; nutrient runoff from chicken farms was blamed for the growth.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: While the bay's salinity is ideal for oysters and the oyster fishery was at one time the bay's most commercially viable, the population has in the last fifty years been devastated. Maryland once had roughly of oyster reefs. In 2008 there were about . It has been estimated that in pre-colonial times, oysters could filter the entirety of the bay in about 3.3 days; by 1988 this time had increased to 325 days. The harvest's gross value decreased 88% from 1982 to 2007. One report suggested the bay had fewer oysters in 2008 than 25 years earlier.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: The primary problem is overharvesting. Lax government regulations allow anyone with a license to remove oysters from state-owned beds, and although limits are set, they are not strongly enforced. The overharvesting of oysters has made it difficult for them to reproduce, which requires close proximity to one another. A second cause for the oyster depletion is that the drastic increase in human population caused a sharp increase in pollution flowing into the bay. The bay's oyster industry has also suffered from two diseases: MSX and Dermo.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: The depletion of oysters has had a particularly harmful effect on the quality of the bay. Oysters serve as natural water filters, and their decline has further reduced the water quality of the bay. Water that was once clear for meters is now so turbid that a wader may lose sight of his feet while his knees are still dry.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: Concern about the increasing discoveries of bay pollution problems, and of the institutional challenges of organizing bay restoration programs over a large geographical area, led to Congress directing the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take a greater role in studying the scientific and technical aspects of the problems beginning in the late 1970s. The agency conducted its research over a seven-year period and published a major report in 1983. The report stated that the bay was an "ecosystem in decline" and cited numerous instances of declines in the populations of oysters, crabs, freshwater fish and other wildlife.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: The growing concerns about pollution also prompted the legislatures of Maryland and Virginia to establish the Chesapeake Bay Commission, an advisory body, in 1980. The commission consults with the state legislatures and executive agencies, as well as Congress, about environmental, economic and social issues related to the bay.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: As an initial follow-up to the EPA report, the Chesapeake Bay Commission and EPA developed the "Chesapeake Bay Agreement" in 1983. The agreement was signed by the by the governors of Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania; the Mayor of the District of Columbia; and the EPA Administrator. The parties agreed to:


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: Concurrent with the 1983 agreement EPA began providing matching grants to the bay states for research and restoration projects.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: In 1987 the parties agreed to set a goal of reducing the amount of nutrients that enter the bay by 40 percent by 2000. In 1992, the bay program partners agreed to continue the 40 percent reduction goal beyond 2000 and to attack nutrients at their source: upstream, in the bay tributaries.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: Efforts of federal, state and local governments, working in partnership through the Chesapeake Bay Program along with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and other nonprofit environmental groups, to restore or at least maintain the current water quality, have had mixed results. One particular obstacle to cleaning up the bay is that much of the polluting substances are discharged far upstream in lying within states far removed from the bay: New York and Pennsylvania. Despite the State of Maryland spending over $100 million to restore the bay, conditions have continued to grow worse. In the mid-20th century, the Bay supported over 6,000 oystermen. As of 2008, there were fewer than 500.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: In June 2000, the Chesapeake Bay Program adopted "Chesapeake 2000," an agreement adopted by the member jurisdictions, intended to guide restoration activities throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed through 2010. One component of this agreement was a series of upgrades to sewage treatment plants throughout the watershed. In 2016 EPA stated that the upgrades "have resulted in steep reductions in nitrogen and phosphorus pollution... despite increases in human population and wastewater volume."


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: EPA published a series of scientific documents on water quality criteria for the bay between 2004 and 2010. The criteria documents, which describe specific pollutants and their effects on aquatic species, are used by the states to develop water quality standards (WQS) for individual water bodies. Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia adopted WQS for various Chesapeake Bay tributaries in the mid-2000s, referencing the EPA criteria documents, as well as their own extensive data gathering and modeling efforts.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: Restoration efforts that began in the 1990s have continued into the 21st century and show potential for growth of the native oyster population. Efforts to repopulate the bay using oyster hatcheries have been carried out by a group called the Oyster Recovery Partnership, with some success. In 2011 the group placed 6 million oysters on of the Trent Hall sanctuary. Scientists from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William & Mary claim that experimental reefs created in 2004 now house 180 million native oysters, "Crassostrea virginica", which is far fewer than the billions that once existed.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: In 2009 the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) filed suit against EPA for its failure to finalize a total maximum daily load (TMDL) ruling for the bay, pursuant to the Clean Water Act. The TMDL would restrict water pollution from farms, land development, power plants and sewage treatment plants. EPA, which had been working with the states on various components of the TMDL since the 1980s (e.g. water quality criteria, standards for individual tributaries, improvements in data gathering and modeling techniques), agreed to settle the lawsuit and issued its TMDL for nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution on December 29, 2010. This was the largest, most complex TMDL document that EPA had issued to date. The TMDL was challenged in litigation by the agriculture and construction industries, but EPA's document was upheld by the courts.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: In 2020 the CBF filed another lawsuit against EPA for its failure to require the states of New York and Pennsylvania to comply with their TMDL goals and reduce pollution in the bay.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: EPA's 2010 TMDL document requires all states in the bay watershed region to develop detailed implementation plans for pollutant reduction. The states have been developing their plans for years, in many cases building upon restoration projects that they had initiated before EPA's TMDL was finalized. These plans are long and complex, involving regular consultation with many stakeholders (i.e. governments, industry, agriculture, citizen groups). The plans include multiple milestone goals for project initiation or continued progress in water quality, through the use of pollution control upgrades (such as at sewage treatment plants) and more widespread utilization of various best management practices (BMPs). The BMPs are designed for specific sites to control pollution from nonpoint sources, principally agriculture, land development and urban runoff. For example, a farmer may install vegetated stream buffers along a stream bank to reduce runoff of sediment, nutrients and other pollutants. A land developer may install stormwater management facilities such as infiltration basins or constructed wetlands during the construction of housing or commercial buildings.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: Installation of stormwater management facilities is already a requirement for most new construction projects in the bay region, under various state and local government requirements. These facilities reduce erosion and keep sediment and other pollutants from entering tributaries and the bay. However retrofitting such facilities into existing developed areas is often expensive due to high land costs, or difficult to install among existing structures. As a result the extent of such retrofit projects in the bay region has been limited.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: In 2010 bay health improved slightly in terms of the overall health of its ecosystem, earning a rating of 31 out of 100, up from a 28 rating in 2008. An estimate in 2006 from a "blue ribbon panel" said cleanup costs would be $15 billion. Compounding the problem is that 100,000 new residents move to the area each year. A 2008 "Washington Post" report suggested that government administrators had overstated progress on cleanup efforts as a way to "preserve the flow of federal and state money to the project." In January 2011, there were reports that millions of fish had died, but officials suggested it was probably the result of extremely cold weather.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: The health of the Chesapeake Bay improved in 2015, marking three years of gains over a four-year period, according to a 2016 report by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES).


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: In 2021 scientists at the UMCES reported slight improvements in bay water quality compared to levels measured in 2020. The greatest improvements were seen in the lower bay areas, while the Patapsco River and Back River (Maryland) regions showed minimal improvement. Positive indicators included decreased nitrogen levels and increases in dissolved oxygen.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: The Chesapeake Bay is already experiencing the effects of climate change. Key among these is sea level rise: water levels in the bay have already risen one foot, with a predicted increase of 1.3 to 5.2 feet in the next 100 years. This has related environmental effects, causing changes in marine ecosystems, destruction of coastal marshes and wetlands, and intrusion of saltwater into otherwise brackish parts of the bay. Sea level rise also compounds the effects of extreme weather on the bay, making coastal flooding as part of the events more extreme and increasing runoff from upstream in the watershed.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: With increases in flooding events and sea level rise, the 11,600 miles of coastline, which include significant historic buildings and modern infrastructure, will be at risk of erosion. Already islands like Holland Island have disappeared due to the rising sea levels.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: Beyond sea level rise, other changes in the marine ecosystem due to climate change, such as ocean acidification and temperature increases, will put increasing pressure on marine life. Projected effects include decreasing dissolved oxygen, more acidic waters making it harder for shellfish to maintain shells, and changing the seasonal cycles important for breeding and other lifecycle activities. Seasonal shifts and warmer temperatures also mean that there is a greater likelihood of pathogens to stay active in the ecosystem.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: Climate change may worsen hypoxia. However, compared to the current effects of nutrient pollution and algal blooms, climate change’s effect to increase hypoxia is relatively small. Warmer waters can hold less dissolved oxygen. Therefore, as the Bay warms, there may be a longer duration of hypoxia each summer season in the deep central channel of the Bay. However, comparing the effects of climate change and nutrient pollution, reduced nutrient pollution would increase oxygen concentrations more dramatically than if climate change were to level out.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: Climate change adaptation and mitigation programs in Maryland and Virginia often include significant programs to address the communities in the Chesapeake Bay. Key infrastructure in Virginia, such as the port of Norfolk, and major agriculture and fishing industries of the Eastern Shore of Maryland will be directly impacted by the changes in the Bay.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: Researchers work in the Chesapeake Bay to collect information about water quality, plant and animal abundances, shoreline erosion, tides, waves, and harmful algal blooms. For example, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science monitors the abundance of submerged aquatic vegetation in the shallow areas of the Chesapeake Bay each summer. Many organizations run continuous monitoring programs. Monitoring programs set out instruments at fixed stations on buoys, moorings, and docks throughout the Bay to record things like temperature, salinity, chlorophyll-a concentration, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity over time.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: Underwater archaeology is a subfield of archaeology that focuses on the exploration of submerged archaeological sites in seas, rivers, and other bodies of water. In 1988, the Maryland Maritime Archeology Program (MMAP) was established with the goal to manage and explore the various underwater archaeological sites that line the Chesapeake Bay. This was in response to the National Abandoned Shipwreck Act passed in 1987, which gave ownership of historically significant shipwrecks to those states with proper management programs.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: Water makes up 25% of the State of Maryland and there are over 550 submerged archaeological sites that have been located across the Chesapeake Bay and its surrounding watersheds. Ranging from 12,000-year-old, precolonial native settlements to shipwrecks from as recent as World War II, the MMAP researches thousands of years worth of history in these archaeological sites. Susan Langley has been Maryland's State Underwater Archaeologist, one of only nine state-appointed underwater archaeologists in the United States, since assuming the role in 1995. Before Langley was hired, only 1% of the underwater archaeological sites in the bay area had been examined. Over the next 10 years, Langley made significant improvements to the MMAP's marine technology, allowing her and her team to explore 34% of the underwater archaeological sites by 2004.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: The Chesapeake Bay watershed has been heavily impacted by natural forces such as erosion, tides, and a history of hurricanes and other storms. Along with environmental factors, the bay has been negatively impacted by humans since being settled in the 17th century, bringing with them problems like pollution, construction, and destruction of the environment. All of these circumstances have made it increasingly difficult for the MMAP to identify potential underwater archaeological sites. As sea levels rise and historically significant areas are sunk and covered in sediment, the MMAP relies on various pieces of equipment to locate these man-made anomalies but also ensure that the material being examined is kept intact. Using marine magnetometers(detects iron/absent space), side-scan sonar,(detects objects on sea floor), along with precise global positioning systems, Langley and the MMAP have been much more successful in locating submerged archaeological sites. After locating the site, Langley and her team have a strict process in order to preserve the site and its contents, allowing more accurate and thorough research to be conducted. The remains of nearly every site have been submerged in saltwater for sometimes centuries, the integrity of shipwrecks and other materials are fragile and careful precaution must be used when working with them. Taking photos and videos, creating maps, and constructing models are all a part of the process of preserving remains. Susan Langley notes herself, “If you have only ten percent of a ship’s hull, you can reconstruct the ship. Construction techniques can tell us about the people who built the vessels, artifacts can tell us about the people who profited from the ship’s trade, and eco-facts—evidence of insect infestation and organic remains, such as seeds, that are preserved in anaerobic, muddy environments—can tell us about the climate and season when a ship sank." Still, the MMAP makes it a point to publish their data and information once a site is officially identified; however, the details of the location are left out to sway would-be looters, who have plagued marine archaeologists for decades.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: Altogether there are more than 1,800 ship and boat wrecks that scatter the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay and its surrounding waterways. Dozens of precolonial era canoes and artifacts have been extracted from the bay, helping to portray a better picture of the lives of Native Americans (e.g., Powhatan, Pamunkey, Nansemond) In 2014, underwater archaeologists identified the skull of a prehistoric mastodon, which through carbon dating was found to be 22,000 years old. Along with the skull, a carved blade was also discovered in the same area. Unable to accurately carbon date the stone tool, archaeologists looked at similar styles of blade carving in order to gauge when it was made. The technique was similar to the Solutrean tools that were crafted in Europe between 22,000 and 17,000 years ago and it was noted that the stone tool must be at least 14,000 years old. The Solutrean hypothesis challenges the previous theory regarding the first inhabitants of North America, whereas it is commonly accepted amongst anthropologists that the Clovis people were the first to settle the region somewhere around 13,000 years ago. There is some controversy surrounding these findings; many anthropologists have disputed this, claiming that the environment and setting make properly identifying the origins of these artifacts nearly impossible.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: The Chesapeake Bay Flotilla, which was constructed using shallow barges and ships to provide a blockade to the British during the War of 1812. After holding strong for some months, the British eventually dispersed the flotilla and dozens of these vessels were burnt and sunk. Starting in 1978, there were numerous expeditions launched in hopes of successfully discovering what was left of the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla. Since then, hundreds of artifacts and remains have been extracted from the submerged ships such as weapons, personal items, and many other objects. Underwater archaeologists have also been successful in constructing accurate models and maps of the wreckage amongst the sea floor.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: In October 1774, a British merchant ship arrived at the port of Annapolis loaded with tea disguised as linens and garments. The tea was hidden by the British to avoid conflict with the colonists as the recently imposed tea tax had created hostility and uncertainty among the colonies. Named "Peggy Stewart," the British vessel arrived and attempted to tax the colonists for the purchased tea. The colonists refused to pay the tax and after a few days of public meetings, the colonists decided to burn "Peggy Stewart" and the contents of it. The British ship was sunk in what became known as the 'Annapolis Tea Party' and has since become an important site for underwater archaeologists in the Chesapeake Bay. In 1949, after the Nazi's defeat in World War 2, the United States seized a German U-1105 built with sonar-evading rubber sheathing for study purposes. It was sunk the same year in the Potomac River off of the Chesapeake Bay following a high explosives test hosted by the U.S. Navy and has since been a popular site for underwater archaeologists.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: Maryland has controlled the majority of underwater archaeology research around the Chesapeake Bay; however, Virginia's Department of Historic Resources has had a State Underwater Archaeologist since the 1970s. In 1982, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources along with the first State Underwater Archaeologist, John Broadwater, led an expedition to explore and research a sunken fleet of Revolution-era battleships. In September 1781, during the Revolutionary War, the British intentionally sunk more than a dozen ships in the York River, near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Led by Lord Charles Cornwallis, a fleet of British ships was pushed back towards the rivers of the Chesapeake, in a desperate attempt to avoid surrendering, Cornwallis began burning and sinking his own vessels with the hopes of stalling the incoming French and American ships. Cornwallis was eventually forced to surrender on October 19 and the ships along with its contents were at the bottom of the York River. One of the British ships, called Betsy, has been explored more than any other and over 5,000 relics were removed from Betsy on their original expedition in 1982, including weapons, personal objects, and some valuable metals. Broadwater and his team were awarded a 20-page article in the magazine "National Geographic" for their findings. Virginia has recently been granted funding for further research of these sunken vessels and expeditions are currently underway with the goal to fully explore this destroyed fleet of British ships. Unfortunately, following the publicity of these sunken ships, many divers have taken it upon themselves to explore the wreckage for 'treasure'.


title: Chesapeake Bay

text: There are several magazines and publications that cover topics directly related to the Chesapeake Bay and life and tourism within the Bay region.


title: Kevin Spacey on screen and stage

text: Kevin Spacey is an American actor who began his acting career on stage. His film career started in the late 1980s after small parts in "Heartburn" (1986) and "Working Girl" (1988). In the 90s, he had supporting roles in the films "Glengarry Glen Ross" (1992) and "Iron Will" (1994) before being cast in the role of Roger "Verbal" Kint in the 1995 "The Usual Suspects" which earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. That same year he played serial killer and villain in "Se7en" opposite Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. He went on to star in "L.A. Confidential" (1997), "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" (1997), "The Negotiator" (1998), and "American Beauty" (1999). The latter earned him his second Academy Award, but this time for Best Actor.


title: Kevin Spacey on screen and stage

text: In the 2000s, he appeared in the films "Pay It Forward" with Helen Hunt (2000), "Superman Returns" as Lex Luthor (2006), "21" with Jim Sturgess (2008), the latter which he also produced. In 2011, he co-starred with Paul Bettany and Jeremy Irons in the drama film "Margin Call". That same year, he played antagonist Dave Harken in the comedy "Horrible Bosses" with Jason Bateman, a role he reprised in the 2014 sequel "Horrible Bosses 2". He played Doc in the 2017 film "Baby Driver" with Ansel Elgort and Ron Levin in the 2018 film "Billionaire Boys Club".


title: Alex Antetokounmpo

text: Alexandros Emeka "Alex" Antetokounmpo ( ; , ; born Adetokunbo 27 August 2001) is a Greek professional basketball player for the Wisconsin Herd of the NBA G League. He is the youngest brother of National Basketball Association (NBA) players Giannis, Thanasis, and Kostas.


title: Alex Antetokounmpo

text: Antetokounmpo was born in Sepolia, a neighbourhood in Athens, Greece. He is the son of Nigerian parents, Veronica and Charles Antetokounmpo. He has a Nigerian passport, which was granted to him in June 2013, so that he could gain a visa, and be allowed to legally enter into the United States. He received the Greek citizenship in September 2021, alongside his mother. He started playing basketball at age nine, and in sixth grade, moved with his family to Milwaukee, where his older brother Giannis was playing his rookie season for the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association. He attended St. Monica School in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin and initially did not speak English.


title: Alex Antetokounmpo

text: Antetokounmpo played basketball for Dominican High School in Whitefish Bay for four years. As a freshman, he averaged 2.9 points per game, and grew about 12 cm (five inches) to by the time he was a sophomore. Antetokounmpo was a two-time all-state selection and averaged 20 points and seven rebounds per game as a senior. He received scholarship offers from DePaul, Ohio and Green Bay. On 9 May 2020, Antetokounmpo announced that he would play in Europe after graduating from high school, rather than playing college basketball. He was considered a three-star recruit by major recruiting services.


title: Alex Antetokounmpo

text: On 22 June 2020, Antetokounmpo signed a three-year contract with UCAM Murcia of the Liga ACB. On 18 October, he made his debut for the club's reserve team in the Liga EBA, recording 28 points and six rebounds, shooting 6-of-9 from three-point range, in an 83–69 win over SCD Carolinas.


title: Alex Antetokounmpo

text: After going undrafted in the 2021 NBA draft, Antetokounmpo joined the Sacramento Kings for the 2021 NBA Summer League. The Sacramento Kings then proceeded to win the 2021 NBA Summer League. On 14 October 2021, Antetokounmpo was signed to an Exhibit 10 contract by the Toronto Raptors. However, he was waived the following day to join the Raptors 905 as an affiliate player.


title: Alex Antetokounmpo

text: Three of his older brothers, Giannis, Thanasis and Kostas, play basketball professionally, and all three have won NBA championships. Giannis and Thanasis play for the Milwaukee Bucks, and Giannis was named NBA Most Valuable Player in both 2019 and 2020. Additionally, Thanasis and Giannis both won the NBA championship in 2021, with Giannis being named as Finals MVP. Kostas last played for the Chicago Bulls & won an NBA title with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020. Antetokounmpo's father and his oldest brother, Francis, played football in Nigeria. His mother was a high jumper. In September 2021, Alex along with his mother were granted honorary Greek citizenship from the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: Laurel Philips Anderson (born June 5, 1947), known as Laurie Anderson, is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and sculpting, Anderson pursued a variety of performance art projects in New York during the 1970s, focusing particularly on language, technology, and visual imagery. She became more widely known outside the art world when her single "O Superman" reached number two on the UK singles chart in 1981. Her debut album "Big Science" was released the following year. She also starred in and directed the 1986 concert film "Home of the Brave".


title: Laurie Anderson

text: Anderson is a pioneer in electronic music and has invented several devices that she has used in her recordings and performance art shows. In 1977, she created a tape-bow violin that uses recorded magnetic tape on the bow instead of horsehair and a magnetic tape head in the bridge. In the late 1990s, she collaborated with Interval Research to develop an instrument she called a "talking stick," a long baton-like MIDI controller that can access and replicate sounds.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: Anderson met singer-songwriter Lou Reed in 1992, and she was married to him from April 2008 until his death in 2013.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: Anderson was born in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, on June 5, 1947, the daughter of Mary Louise (née Rowland) and Arthur T. Anderson. She had seven siblings, and on weekends she studied painting at the Art Institute of Chicago and played with the Chicago Youth Symphony.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: She graduated from Glenbard West High School. She attended Mills College in California, and after moving to New York in 1966, graduated in 1969 from Barnard College with a B.A. "magna cum laude" and Phi Beta Kappa, studying art history. In 1972, she obtained an M.F.A. in sculpture from Columbia University.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: Her first performance-art piece — a symphony played on automobile horns — was performed in 1969. In 1970, she drew the underground comix "Baloney Moccasins", which was published by George DiCaprio. In the early 1970s, she worked as an art instructor, as an art critic for magazines such as "Artforum", and illustrated children's books—the first of which was titled "The Package", a mystery story in pictures alone.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: Anderson performed in New York during the 1970s. One of her most-cited performances, "Duets on Ice", which she conducted in New York and other cities around the world, involved her playing the violin along with a recording while wearing ice skates with the blades frozen into a block of ice; the performance ended only when the ice had melted away. Two early pieces, "New York Social Life" and "Time to Go," are included in the 1977 compilation "New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media", along with works by Pauline Oliveros and others. Two other pieces were included on "Airwaves", a collection of audio pieces by various artists. She also recorded a lecture for "Vision", a set of artist's lectures released by Crown Point Press as a set of six LPs.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: Many of Anderson's earliest recordings remain unreleased or were issued only in limited quantities, such as her first single, "It's Not the Bullet that Kills You (It's the Hole)." That song, along with "New York Social Life" and about a dozen others, was originally recorded for use in an art installation that consisted of a jukebox that played the different Anderson compositions, at the Holly Solomon Gallery in New York City. Among the musicians on these early recordings are Peter Gordon on saxophone, Scott Johnson on guitar, Ken Deifik on harmonica, and Joe Kos on drums. Photographs and descriptions of many of these early performances were included in Anderson's retrospective book "Stories from the Nerve Bible".


title: Laurie Anderson

text: During the late 1970s, Anderson made a number of additional recordings that were either released privately or included on compilations of avant-garde music, most notably releases by the Giorno Poetry Systems label run by New York poet John Giorno, an early intimate of Andy Warhol. In 1978, she performed at the Nova Convention, a major conference involving many counter-culture figures and rising avant-garde musical stars, including William S. Burroughs, Philip Glass, Frank Zappa, Timothy Leary, Malcolm Goldstein, John Cage, and Allen Ginsberg. She also worked with comedian Andy Kaufman in the late 1970s.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: In 1980, Anderson was awarded an honorary doctorate from the San Francisco Art Institute. In 1982, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts—Film. In 1987, Anderson was awarded an honorary doctorate in the fine arts from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: Anderson became widely known outside the art world in 1981 with the single "O Superman," originally released in a limited quantity by B. George's One Ten Records, which ultimately reached number two on the British charts. The sudden influx of orders from the UK (prompted partly by British station BBC Radio 1 playlisting the record) led to Anderson signing a seven-album deal with Warner Bros. Records, which re-released the single.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: "O Superman" was part of a larger stage work titled "United States" and was included on the album "Big Science". Prior to the release of "Big Science", Anderson returned to Giorno Poetry Systems to record the album "You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With"; Anderson recorded one side of the double-LP set, with William S. Burroughs and John Giorno recording a side each, and the fourth side featured a separate groove for each artist. This was followed by the back-to-back releases of her albums "Mister Heartbreak" and "United States Live", the latter of which was a five-LP (and, later, four-CD) recording of her two-evening stage show at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She also appeared in a television special produced by Nam June Paik broadcast on New Year's Day 1984, titled "Good Morning, Mr. Orwell."


title: Laurie Anderson

text: She next starred in and directed the 1986 concert film "Home of the Brave" and also composed the soundtracks for the Spalding Gray films "Swimming to Cambodia" and "Monster in a Box". During this time, she also contributed music to Robert Wilson's "Alcestis" at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She also hosted the PBS series "Alive from Off Center" during 1987, after having produced the short film "What You Mean We?" for the series the year before. "What You Mean We?" introduced a new character played by Anderson: "The Clone," a digitally altered masculine counterpart to Anderson who later "co-hosted" with her when she did her presenting stint on "Alive from Off Center". Elements of The Clone were later incorporated into the titular "puppet" of her later work, "Puppet Motel". In that year, she also appeared on Peter Gabriel's album "So", in the song "This is the Picture (Excellent Birds)."


title: Laurie Anderson

text: Release of Anderson's first post-"Home of the Brave" album, 1989's "Strange Angels", was delayed for more than a year in order for Anderson to take singing lessons. This was due to the album being more musically inclined (in terms of singing) than her previous works. The single "Babydoll" was a moderate hit on the Modern Rock Charts in 1989.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: In 1991, she was a member of the jury at the 41st Berlin International Film Festival. In the same year, Anderson appeared in "The Human Face", a feature arts documentary directed by artist-filmmakers Nichola Bruce and Michael Coulson for BBC television. Anderson was the presenter in this documentary on the history of the face in art and science. Her face was transformed using latex masks and digital special effects as she introduced ideas about the relationship between physiognomy and perception. Her varied career in the early 1990s included voice-acting in the animated film "The Rugrats Movie". In 1994, she created a CD-ROM titled "Puppet Motel", which was followed by "Bright Red", co-produced by Brian Eno, and another spoken-word album, "The Ugly One with the Jewels". This was followed by an appearance on the 1997 charity single "Perfect Day."


title: Laurie Anderson

text: In 1996, Anderson performed with Diego Frenkel (La Portuária) and Aterciopelados for the AIDS benefit album "" produced by the Red Hot Organization.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: An interval of more than half a decade followed before her next album release. During this time, she wrote a supplemental article on the cultural character of New York City for the "Encyclopædia Britannica" and created a number of multimedia presentations, most notably one inspired by "Moby-Dick" ("Songs and Stories from Moby Dick", 1999–2000). One of the central themes in Anderson's work is exploring the effects of technology on human relationships and communication.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: Starting in the 1990s, Anderson and Lou Reed, whom she had met in 1992, collaborated on a number of recordings together. Reed contributed to the tracks "In Our Sleep" from Anderson's "Bright Red", "One Beautiful Evening" from Anderson's "Life on a String", and "My Right Eye" and "Only an Expert" from Anderson's "Homeland", which Reed also co-produced. Anderson contributed to the tracks "Call on Me" from Reed's collaborative project "The Raven," "Rouge" and "Rock Minuet" from Reed's "Ecstasy", and "Hang On to Your Emotions" from Reed's "Set the Twilight Reeling".


title: Laurie Anderson

text: "Life on a String" appeared in 2001, by which time she signed a new contract with another Warner Music label, Nonesuch Records. "Life on a String" was a mixture of new works (including one song recalling the death of her father) and works from the "Moby Dick" presentation. In 2001, she recorded the audiobook version of Don DeLillo's novel "The Body Artist". Anderson went on tour performing a selection of her best-known musical pieces in 2001. One of these performances was recorded in New York City a week after the September 11, 2001, attacks, and included a performance of "O Superman." This concert was released in early 2002 as the double CD "Live in New York".


title: Laurie Anderson

text: In 2003, Anderson became NASA's first artist-in-residence, which inspired her performance piece "The End of the Moon". She mounted a succession of themed shows and composed a piece for Expo 2005 in Japan. In 2005, Anderson visited Russia's space program—the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre and mission control—with The Arts Catalyst and took part in The Arts Catalyst's Space Soon event at the Roundhouse to reflect on her experiences. She was part of the team that created the opening ceremony for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Later that year, she collaborated with choreographer Trisha Brown and filmmaker Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo on the acclaimed multimedia project "O Zlozony/O Composite" for the Paris Opera Ballet. The ballet premiered at the Opera Garnier in Paris in December 2004.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: In 2005, her exhibition "The Waters Reglitterized" opened at the Sean Kelly Gallery in New York City. According to the press release by Sean Kelly, the work is a diary of dreams and their literal recreation as works of art. This work, created in the process of re-experiencing or re-working her dreams while awake, uses the language of dreams to investigate the dream itself. The resulting pieces include drawings, prints, and high-definition video. The installation ran until October 22, 2005.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: In 2006, Anderson was awarded a Residency at the American Academy in Rome. She narrated Ric Burns' "", which was first televised in September 2006 as part of the PBS "American Masters" series. She contributed a song to "Plague Songs", a collection of songs related to the 10 Biblical plagues. Anderson also performed in Came So Far for Beauty, the Leonard Cohen tribute event held in the Point Theatre, Dublin, Ireland, on October 4–5, 2006. In November 2006, she published a book of drawings based on her dreams, titled "Night Life".


title: Laurie Anderson

text: Material from "Homeland" was performed at small work-in-progress shows in New York throughout May 2007, most notably at the Highline Ballroom on May 17–18, supported by a four-piece band with spontaneous lighting and video visuals mixed live throughout the performances by Willie Williams and Mark Coniglio, respectively. A European tour of the "Homeland" work in progress then took place, including performances on September 28–29, 2007, at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin; on October 17–19 at the Melbourne International Arts Festival; in Russia at the Moscow Dom Muzyky concert hall on April 26, 2008. The work was performed across the Atlantic in Toronto, Canada, on June 14, 2008, with husband Lou Reed, making the "Lost Art of Conversation" a duet with vocals and guitar, with his ambling style contrasting with Anderson's tightly wound performance. Anderson's "Homeland Tour" performed at several locations across the United States as well, such as at the Ferst Center for the Arts, Atlanta, Georgia; The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York City; and Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park, Chicago, Illinois, co-presented by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: In February 2010, Laurie Anderson premiered a new theatrical work, titled "Delusion", at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. This piece was commissioned by the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad and the Barbican Centre, London. Anderson was honored with the Women's Project Theater Woman of Achievement Award in March 2010. In May/June 2010, Anderson curated the Vivid Live festival in Sydney, Australia, together with Lou Reed. Her new album "Homeland" was released on June 22. She performed "Only an Expert" on July 15, 2010, on the "Late Show with David Letterman", and her song "Gravity's Angel" was featured on the Fox TV show "So You Think You Can Dance" the same day. She appears as a guest musician on several tracks from experimental jazz musician Colin Stetson's 2011 album "".


title: Laurie Anderson

text: Anderson developed a theatrical work titled "Another Day in America." The first public showings of this work-in-progress took place in Calgary, Alberta, in January 2012 as part of Theatre Junction Grand's 2011–12 season and One Yellow Rabbit's annual arts festival, the High Performance Rodeo. Anderson was named the Inaugural Distinguished Artist-In-Residence at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, in May 2012. In March 2013, an exhibition of Anderson's work entitled "Laurie Anderson: Language of the Future, selected works 1971-2013" at the Samstag Museum was part of the Adelaide Festival of the Arts in Adelaide, South Australia. Anderson performed her "Duets on Ice" outside the Samstag on opening night.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: Anderson received the Honorary Doctor of Arts from the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in 2013. In June/July 2013, Anderson performed "The Language of the Future" and guest curated at the River to River Festival in New York City. In November 2013, she was the featured Guest of Honor at the B3 Biennale of the Moving Image in Frankfurt, Germany. In 2018, Anderson contributed vocals to a re-recording of the David Bowie song "Shining Star (Makin' My Love)," originally from Bowie's 1987 album "Never Let Me Down". She was asked to join the production by producer Mario J. McNulty, who knew that Anderson and Bowie had been friends.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: On February 10, 2019, at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, held in Los Angeles, Anderson and Kronos Quartet's "Landfall" won the Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance. It was Anderson's first collaboration with Kronos Quartet and her first Grammy award, and was the second Grammy for Kronos. Inspired by her experience of Hurricane Sandy, Nonesuch Records said, ""Landfall" juxtaposes lush electronics and traditional strings by Kronos with Anderson's powerful descriptions of loss, from water-logged pianos to disappearing animal species to Dutch karaoke bars."


title: Laurie Anderson

text: "Chalkroom" is a virtual reality work by Laurie Anderson and Taiwanese artist Hsin-Chien Huang in which the reader flies through an enormous structure made of words, drawings, and stories. "To the Moon", a collaboration with Hsin-Chien Huang, premiered at the Manchester International Festival on July 12, 2019. A 15-minute virtual reality artwork, "To the Moon" allows audience members to explore a moon that features donkey rides and rubbish from Earth in a non-narrative structure. Alongside, a film shows the development of the new work.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: Laurie Anderson was appointed the 2021 Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University and presented a series of six lectures titled "Spending the War Without You: Virtual Backgrounds" over the course of the spring and fall semesters.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: In 2021, Anderson created a show on the second floor of the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., titled "The Weather" and described by "The New York Times" as "a sort of nonretrospective retrospective of one of America’s major, and majorly confounding, modern artists."


title: Laurie Anderson

text: Anderson has invented several experimental musical instruments that she has used in her recordings and performances.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: The tape-bow violin is an instrument created by Laurie Anderson in 1977. It uses recorded magnetic tape in place of the traditional horsehair in the bow, and a magnetic tape head in the bridge. Anderson has updated and modified this device over the years. She can be seen using a later generation of this device in her film "Home of the Brave" during the "Late Show" segment in which she manipulates a sentence recorded by William S. Burroughs. This version of the violin used MIDI-based audio samples, triggered by contact with the bow.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: The talking stick is a six-foot-long baton-like MIDI controller. It was used in the "Moby-Dick" tour in 1999–2000. She described it in program notes as follows:


title: Laurie Anderson

text: A recurring motif in Anderson's work is the use of an electric pitch-shifting voice filter that deepens her voice into a masculine register, a technique that Anderson has referred to as "audio drag." Anderson has long used the resulting character in her work as a "voice of authority" or conscience, although she later decided that the voice had lost much of its authority and instead began using the voice to provide historical or sociopolitical commentary, as it is used on "Another Day in America," a piece from her 2010 album "Homeland".


title: Laurie Anderson

text: For much of Anderson's career, the voice was nameless or called the Voice of Authority, although as early as 2009 it was dubbed Fenway Bergamot at Lou Reed's suggestion. The cover of "Homeland" depicts Anderson in character as Bergamot, with streaks of black makeup to give her a moustache and thick, masculine eyebrows.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: In "The Cultural Ambassador," a piece on her album "The Ugly One with the Jewels", Anderson explained some of her perspective on the character:


title: Laurie Anderson

text: The single "Sharkey's Day" was for many years the theme song of Lifetime Television. Anderson also recorded a number of limited-release singles in the late 1970s (many issued from the Holly Soloman Gallery), songs from which were included on a number of compilations, including Giorno Poetry Systems' "The Nova Convention" and "You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With". Over the years she has performed on recordings by other musicians such as Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed, and Jean Michel Jarre. She also contributed lyrics to the Philip Glass album "Songs from Liquid Days", and contributed a spoken-word piece to a tribute album in honor of John Cage.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: In addition, in lieu of making another music video for her "Strange Angels" album, Anderson taped a series of one- to two-minute "Personal Service Announcements" in which she spoke about issues such as the U.S. national debt and the arts scene. Some of the music used in these productions came from her soundtrack of "Swimming to Cambodia". The PSAs were frequently shown between music videos on VH-1 in early 1990.


title: Laurie Anderson

text: In 2013, Dale Eisinger of "Complex" ranked "United States" as the third greatest work of performance art ever, with the writer arguing that Anderson is "able to ascertain just exactly the climate of life in the United States, without being so punctuated that it causes a standoff. Perhaps the zenith of this configuration was her multimedia performance, 'United States I – IV.' [...] [Anderson displays] her vast, incisive range of talents on the 'United States Live' recordings."


title: Laurie Anderson

text: She moved to New York in 1966 and now lives in Tribeca. Anderson was the romantic partner of fellow musician Lou Reed for 21 years. They were married in 2008 and remained together for the following five years until his death of liver cancer.


title: Tragedy

text: Tragedy (from the , "tragōidia") is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsis, or a "pain [that] awakens pleasure", for the audience. While many cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, the term "tragedy" often refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western civilization. That tradition has been multiple and discontinuous, yet the term has often been used to invoke a powerful effect of cultural identity and historical continuity—"the Greeks and the Elizabethans, in one cultural form; Hellenes and Christians, in a common activity," as Raymond Williams puts it.


title: Tragedy

text: From its origins in the theatre of ancient Greece 2500 years ago, from which there survives only a fraction of the work of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, as well as many fragments from other poets, and the later Roman tragedies of Seneca; through its singular articulations in the works of Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Jean Racine, and Friedrich Schiller to the more recent naturalistic tragedy of Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg; Samuel Beckett's modernist meditations on death, loss and suffering; Heiner Müller postmodernist reworkings of the tragic canon, tragedy has remained an important site of cultural experimentation, negotiation, struggle, and change. A long line of philosophers—which includes Plato, Aristotle, Saint Augustine, Voltaire, Hume, Diderot, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Freud, Benjamin, Camus, Lacan, and Deleuze—have analysed, speculated upon, and criticised the genre.


title: Tragedy

text: In the wake of Aristotle's "Poetics" (335 BCE), tragedy has been used to make genre distinctions, whether at the scale of poetry in general (where the tragic divides against epic and lyric) or at the scale of the drama (where tragedy is opposed to comedy). In the modern era, tragedy has also been defined against drama, melodrama, the tragicomic, and epic theatre. Drama, in the narrow sense, cuts across the traditional division between comedy and tragedy in an anti- or a-generic deterritorialisation from the mid-19th century onwards. Both Bertolt Brecht and Augusto Boal define their epic theatre projects (non-Aristotelian drama and Theatre of the Oppressed, respectively) against models of tragedy. Taxidou, however, reads epic theatre as an incorporation of tragic functions and its treatments of mourning and speculation.


title: Tragedy

text: The word "tragedy" appears to have been used to describe different phenomena at different times. It derives from Classical Greek , contracted from "trag(o)-aoidiā" = "goat song", which comes from "tragos" = "he-goat" and "aeidein" = "to sing" ("cf." "ode"). Scholars suspect this may be traced to a time when a goat was either the prize in a competition of choral dancing or was what a chorus danced around prior to the animal's ritual sacrifice. In another view on the etymology, Athenaeus of Naucratis (2nd–3rd century CE) says that the original form of the word was "trygodia" from "trygos" (grape harvest) and "ode" (song), because those events were first introduced during grape harvest.


title: Tragedy

text: Writing in 335 BCE (long after the Golden Age of 5th-century Athenian tragedy), Aristotle provides the earliest-surviving explanation for the origin of the dramatic art form in his "Poetics", in which he argues that tragedy developed from the improvisations of the leader of choral dithyrambs (hymns sung and danced in praise of Dionysos, the god of wine and fertility):


title: Tragedy

text: There is some dissent to the dithyrambic origins of tragedy, mostly based on the differences between the shapes of their choruses and styles of dancing. A common descent from pre-Hellenic fertility and burial rites has been suggested. Friedrich Nietzsche discussed the origins of Greek tragedy in his early book "The Birth of Tragedy" (1872). Here, he suggests the name originates in the use of a chorus of goat-like satyrs in the original dithyrambs from which the tragic genre developed.


title: Tragedy

text: Athenian tragedy—the oldest surviving form of tragedy—is a type of dance-drama that formed an important part of the theatrical culture of the city-state. Having emerged sometime during the 6th century BCE, it flowered during the 5th century BCE (from the end of which it began to spread throughout the Greek world), and continued to be popular until the beginning of the Hellenistic period. No tragedies from the 6th century and only 32 of the more than a thousand that were performed in the 5th century have survived. We have complete texts extant by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Aeschylus' "Persians" is recognized to be the earliest extant Greek tragedy, and as such it is doubly unique among the extant ancient dramas.


title: Tragedy

text: Athenian tragedies were performed in late March/early April at an annual state religious festival in honor of Dionysus. The presentations took the form of a contest between three playwrights, who presented their works on three successive days. Each playwright offered a tetralogy consisting of three tragedies and a concluding comic piece called a satyr play. The four plays sometimes featured linked stories. Only one complete trilogy of tragedies has survived, the "Oresteia" of Aeschylus. The Greek theatre was in the open air, on the side of a hill, and performances of a trilogy and satyr play probably lasted most of the day. Performances were apparently open to all citizens, including women, but evidence is scant. The theatre of Dionysus at Athens probably held around 12,000 people.


title: Tragedy

text: All of the choral parts were sung (to the accompaniment of an "aulos") and some of the actors' answers to the chorus were sung as well. The play as a whole was composed in various verse metres. All actors were male and wore masks. A Greek chorus danced as well as sang, though no one knows exactly what sorts of steps the chorus performed as it sang. Choral songs in tragedy are often divided into three sections: strophe ("turning, circling"), antistrophe ("counter-turning, counter-circling") and epode ("after-song").


title: Tragedy

text: Many ancient Greek tragedians employed the "ekkyklêma" as a theatrical device, which was a platform hidden behind the scene that could be rolled out to display the aftermath of some event which had happened out of sight of the audience. This event was frequently a brutal murder of some sort, an act of violence which could not be effectively portrayed visually, but an action of which the other characters must see the effects for it to have meaning and emotional resonance. A prime example of the use of the "ekkyklêma" is after the murder of Agamemnon in the first play of Aeschylus' "Oresteia", when the king's butchered body is wheeled out in a grand display for all to see. Variations on the "ekkyklêma" are used in tragedies and other forms to this day, as writers still find it a useful and often powerful device for showing the consequences of extreme human actions. Another such device was a crane, the mechane, which served to hoist a god or goddess on stage when they were supposed to arrive flying. This device gave origin to the phrase "deus ex machina" ("god out of a machine"), that is, the surprise intervention of an unforeseen external factor that changes the outcome of an event.


title: Tragedy

text: Following the expansion of the Roman Republic (509–27 BCE) into several Greek territories between 270 and 240 BCE, Rome encountered Greek tragedy. From the later years of the republic and by means of the Roman Empire (27 BCE-476 CE), theatre spread west across Europe, around the Mediterranean and even reached Britain. While Greek tragedy continued to be performed throughout the Roman period, the year 240 BCE marks the beginning of regular Roman drama. Livius Andronicus began to write Roman tragedies, thus creating some of the first important works of Roman literature. Five years later, Gnaeus Naevius also began to write tragedies (though he was more appreciated for his comedies). No complete early Roman tragedy survives, though it was highly regarded in its day; historians know of three other early tragic playwrights—Quintus Ennius, Marcus Pacuvius and Lucius Accius.


title: Tragedy

text: From the time of the empire, the tragedies of two playwrights survive—one is an unknown author, while the other is the Stoic philosopher Seneca. Nine of Seneca's tragedies survive, all of which are "fabula crepidata" (tragedies adapted from Greek originals); his "Phaedra", for example, was based on Euripides' "Hippolytus". Historians do not know who wrote the only extant example of the "fabula praetexta" (tragedies based on Roman subjects), "Octavia", but in former times it was mistakenly attributed to Seneca due to his appearance as a character in the tragedy.


title: Tragedy

text: Seneca's tragedies rework those of all three of the Athenian tragic playwrights whose work has survived. Probably meant to be recited at elite gatherings, they differ from the Greek versions in their long declamatory, narrative accounts of action, their obtrusive moralising, and their bombastic rhetoric. They dwell on detailed accounts of horrible deeds and contain long reflective soliloquies. Though the gods rarely appear in these plays, ghosts and witches abound. Senecan tragedies explore ideas of revenge, the occult, the supernatural, suicide, blood and gore. The Renaissance scholar Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484–1558), who knew both Latin and Greek, preferred Seneca to Euripides.


title: Tragedy

text: Classical Greek drama was largely forgotten in Western Europe from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 16th century. Medieval theatre was dominated by mystery plays, morality plays, farces and miracle plays. In Italy, the models for tragedy in the later Middle Ages were Roman, particularly the works of Seneca, interest in which was reawakened by the Paduan Lovato de' Lovati (1241–1309). His pupil Albertino Mussato (1261–1329), also of Padua, in 1315 wrote the Latin verse tragedy "Eccerinis", which uses the story of the tyrant Ezzelino III da Romano to highlight the danger to Padua posed by Cangrande della Scala of Verona. It was the first secular tragedy written since Roman times, and may be considered the first Italian tragedy identifiable as a Renaissance work. The earliest tragedies to employ purely classical themes are the "Achilles" written before 1390 by Antonio Loschi of Vicenza (c.1365–1441) and the "Progne" of the Venetian Gregorio Correr (1409–1464) which dates from 1428 to 1429.


title: Tragedy

text: In 1515 Gian Giorgio Trissino (1478–1550) of Vicenza wrote his tragedy "Sophonisba" in the vernacular that would later be called Italian. Drawn from Livy's account of Sophonisba, the Carthaginian princess who drank poison to avoid being taken by the Romans, it adheres closely to classical rules. It was soon followed by the "Oreste" and "Rosmunda" of Trissino's friend, the Florentine Giovanni di Bernardo Rucellai (1475–1525). Both were completed by early 1516 and are based on classical Greek models, "Rosmunda" on the "Hecuba" of Euripides, and "Oreste" on the "Iphigenia in Tauris" of the same author; like "Sophonisba", they are in Italian and in blank (unrhymed) hendecasyllables. Another of the first of all modern tragedies is "A Castro", by Portuguese poet and playwright António Ferreira, written around 1550 (but only published in 1587) in polymetric verse (most of it being blank hendecasyllables), dealing with the murder of Inês de Castro, one of the most dramatic episodes in Portuguese history. Although these three Italian plays are often cited, separately or together, as being the first regular tragedies in modern times, as well as the earliest substantial works to be written in blank hendecasyllables, they were apparently preceded by two other works in the vernacular: "Pamfila" or "Filostrato e Panfila" written in 1498 or 1508 by Antonio Cammelli (Antonio da Pistoia); and a "Sophonisba" by Galeotto del Carretto of 1502.


title: Tragedy

text: From about 1500 printed copies, in the original languages, of the works of Sophocles, Seneca, and Euripides, as well as comedic writers such as Aristophanes, Terence and Plautus, were available in Europe and the next forty years saw humanists and poets translating and adapting their tragedies. In the 1540s, the European university setting (and especially, from 1553 on, the Jesuit colleges) became host to a Neo-Latin theatre (in Latin) written by scholars. The influence of Seneca was particularly strong in its humanist tragedy. His plays, with their ghosts, lyrical passages and rhetorical oratory, brought a concentration on rhetoric and language over dramatic action to many humanist tragedies.


title: Tragedy

text: The most important sources for French tragic theatre in the Renaissance were the example of Seneca and the precepts of Horace and Aristotle (and contemporary commentaries by Julius Caesar Scaliger and Lodovico Castelvetro), although plots were taken from classical authors such as Plutarch, Suetonius, etc., from the Bible, from contemporary events and from short story collections (Italian, French and Spanish). The Greek tragic authors (Sophocles and Euripides) would become increasingly important as models by the middle of the 17th century. Important models were also supplied by the Spanish Golden Age playwrights Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Tirso de Molina and Lope de Vega, many of whose works were translated and adapted for the French stage.


title: Tragedy

text: In English, the most famous and most successful tragedies are those of William Shakespeare and his Elizabethan contemporaries. Shakespeare's tragedies include:


title: Tragedy

text: A contemporary of Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, also wrote examples of tragedy in English, notably:


title: Tragedy

text: Domestic tragedies are tragedies in which the tragic protagonists are ordinary middle-class or working-class individuals. This subgenre contrasts with classical and Neoclassical tragedy, in which the protagonists are of kingly or aristocratic rank and their downfall is an affair of state as well as a personal matter.


title: Tragedy

text: The Ancient Greek theorist Aristotle had argued that tragedy should concern only great individuals with great minds and souls, because their catastrophic downfall would be more emotionally powerful to the audience; only comedy should depict middle-class people. Domestic tragedy breaks with Aristotle's precepts, taking as its subjects merchants or citizens whose lives have less consequence in the wider world.


title: Tragedy

text: The advent of the domestic tragedy ushered in the first phase shift of the genre focusing less on the Aristotelian definition of the genre and more on the definition of tragedy on the scale of the drama, where tragedy is opposed to comedy i.e. melancholic stories. Although the utilization of key elements such as suffering, hamartia, morality, and spectacle ultimately ties this variety of tragedy to all the rest. This variant of tragedy has led to the evolution and development of tragedies of the modern era especially those past the mid-1800s such as the works of Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill and Henrik Ibsen. Newly dealt with themes that sprang forth from the Domestic tragedy movement include: wrongful convictions and executions, poverty, starvation, addiction, alcoholism, debt, structural abuse, child abuse, crime, domestic violence, social shunning, depression, and loneliness.


title: Tragedy

text: Contemporary with Shakespeare, an entirely different approach to facilitating the rebirth of tragedy was taken in Italy. Jacopo Peri, in the preface to his "Euridice" refers to "the ancient Greeks and Romans (who in the opinion of many sang their staged tragedies throughout in representing them on stage)." The attempts of Peri and his contemporaries to recreate ancient tragedy gave rise to the new Italian musical genre of opera. In France, tragic operatic works from the time of Lully to about that of Gluck were not called opera, but "tragédie en musique" ("tragedy in music") or some similar name; the "tragédie en musique" is regarded as a distinct musical genre. Some later operatic composers have also shared Peri's aims: Richard Wagner's concept of "Gesamtkunstwerk" ("integrated work of art"), for example, was intended as a return to the ideal of Greek tragedy in which all the arts were blended in service of the drama. Nietzsche, in his "The Birth of Tragedy" (1872) was to support Wagner in his claims to be a successor of the ancient dramatists.


title: Tragedy

text: For much of the 17th century, Pierre Corneille, who made his mark on the world of tragedy with plays like "Medée" (1635) and "Le Cid" (1636), was the most successful writer of French tragedies. Corneille's tragedies were strangely un-tragic (his first version of "Le Cid" was even listed as a tragicomedy), for they had happy endings. In his theoretical works on theatre, Corneille redefined both comedy and tragedy around the following suppositions:


title: Tragedy

text: Corneille continued to write plays through 1674 (mainly tragedies, but also something he called "heroic comedies") and many continued to be successes, although the "irregularities" of his theatrical methods were increasingly criticised (notably by François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac) and the success of Jean Racine from the late 1660s signalled the end of his preeminence.


title: Tragedy

text: Jean Racine's tragedies—inspired by Greek myths, Euripides, Sophocles and Seneca—condensed their plot into a tight set of passionate and duty-bound conflicts between a small group of noble characters, and concentrated on these characters' double-binds and the geometry of their unfulfilled desires and hatreds. Racine's poetic skill was in the representation of pathos and amorous passion (like Phèdre's love for her stepson) and his impact was such that emotional crisis would be the dominant mode of tragedy to the end of the century. Racine's two late plays ("Esther" and "Athalie") opened new doors to biblical subject matter and to the use of theatre in the education of young women. Racine also faced criticism for his irregularities: when his play, "Bérénice", was criticised for not containing any deaths, Racine disputed the conventional view of tragedy.


title: Tragedy

text: For more on French tragedy of the 16th and 17th centuries, see French Renaissance literature and French literature of the 17th century.


title: Tragedy

text: Towards the close of the eighteenth century, having studied her predecessors, Joanna Baillie wanted to revolutionise theatre, believing that it could be used more effectively to affect people's lives. To this end she gave a new direction to tragedy, which she defines as ‘the unveiling of the human mind under the dominion of those strong and fixed passions, which seemingly unprovoked by outward circumstances, will from small beginnings brood within the breast, till all the better dispositions, all the fair gifts of nature are borne down before them'.


title: Tragedy

text: This theory, she put into practice in her 'Series of Plays on the Passions' in three volumes (commencing in 1798) and in other dramatic works. Her method was to create a series of scenes and incidents intended to capture the audience's inquisitiveness and 'trace the progress of the passion, pointing out those stages in the approach of the enemy, when he might have been combated most successfully; and where the suffering him to pass may be considered as occasioning all the misery that ensues.'


title: Tragedy

text: Bourgeois tragedy (German: Bürgerliches Trauerspiel) is a form that developed in 18th-century Europe. It was a fruit of the Enlightenment and the emergence of the bourgeois class and its ideals. It is characterised by the fact that its protagonists are ordinary citizens. The first true bourgeois tragedy was an English play, George Lillo's "The London Merchant; or, the History of George Barnwell", which was first performed in 1731. Usually, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's play "Miss Sara Sampson", which was first produced in 1755, is said to be the earliest "Bürgerliches Trauerspiel" in Germany.


title: Tragedy

text: In modernist literature, the definition of tragedy has become less precise. The most fundamental change has been the rejection of Aristotle's dictum that true tragedy can only depict those with power and high status. Arthur Miller's essay "Tragedy and the Common Man" (1949) argues that tragedy may also depict ordinary people in domestic surroundings thus defining Domestic tragedies. British playwright Howard Barker has argued strenuously for the rebirth of tragedy in the contemporary theatre, most notably in his volume "Arguments for a Theatre". "You emerge from tragedy equipped against lies. After the musical, you're anybody's fool," he insists.


title: Tragedy

text: Critics such as George Steiner have even been prepared to argue that tragedy may no longer exist in comparison with its former manifestations in classical antiquity. In "The Death of Tragedy" (1961) George Steiner outlined the characteristics of Greek tragedy and the traditions that developed from that period. In the Foreword (1980) to a new edition of his book Steiner concluded that ‘the dramas of Shakespeare are not a renascence of or a humanistic variant of the absolute tragic model. They are, rather, a rejection of this model in the light of tragi-comic and "realistic" criteria.’ In part, this feature of Shakespeare's mind is explained by his bent of mind or imagination which was ‘so encompassing, so receptive to the plurality of diverse orders of experience.’ When compared to the drama of Greek antiquity and French classicism Shakespeare's forms are ‘richer but hybrid'.


title: Tragedy

text: Numerous books and plays continue to be written in the tradition of tragedy to this day examples include "Froth on the Daydream", "The Road", "The Fault in Our Stars", "Fat City", "Rabbit Hole", "Requiem for a Dream", "The Handmaid's Tale".


title: Tragedy

text: Defining tragedy is no simple matter, and there are many definitions, some of which are incompatible with each other. Oscar Mandel, in "A Definition of Tragedy" (1961), contrasted two essentially different means of arriving at a definition. First is what he calls the "derivative" way, in which the tragedy is thought to be an expression of an ordering of the world; "instead of asking what tragedy expresses, the derivative definition tends to ask what expresses itself through tragedy". The second is the "substantive" way of defining tragedy, which starts with the work of art which is assumed to "contain" the ordering of the world. Substantive critics "are interested in the constituent elements of art, rather than its ontological sources". He recognizes four subclasses: a. "definition by formal elements" (for instance the supposed "three unities"); b. "definition by situation" (where one defines tragedy for instance as "exhibiting the fall of a good man"); c. "definition by ethical direction" (where the critic is concerned with the meaning, with the "intellectual and moral effect); and d. "definition by emotional effect" (and he cites Aristotle's "requirement of pity and fear").


title: Tragedy

text: tragedy is characterised by seriousness and involves a great person who experiences a reversal of fortune ("Peripeteia"). Aristotle's definition can include a change of fortune from bad to good as in the "Eumenides", but he says that the change from good to bad as in "Oedipus Rex" is preferable because this induces pity and fear within the spectators. Tragedy results in a catharsis (emotional cleansing) or healing for the audience through their experience of these emotions in response to the suffering of the characters in the drama.


title: Tragedy

text: According to Aristotle, "the structure of the best tragedy should not be simple but complex and one that represents incidents arousing fear and pity—for that is peculiar to this form of art." This reversal of fortune must be caused by the tragic hero's "hamartia", which is often translated as either a character flaw, or as a mistake (since the original Greek etymology traces back to "hamartanein", a sporting term that refers to an archer or spear-thrower missing his target). According to Aristotle, "The misfortune is brought about not by [general] vice or depravity, but by some [particular] error or frailty." The reversal is the inevitable but unforeseen result of some action taken by the hero. It is also a misconception that this reversal can be brought about by a higher power (e.g. the law, the gods, fate, or society), but if a character's downfall is brought about by an external cause, Aristotle describes this as a misadventure and not a tragedy.


title: Tragedy

text: In addition, the tragic hero may achieve some revelation or recognition (anagnorisis--"knowing again" or "knowing back" or "knowing throughout") about human fate, destiny, and the will of the gods. Aristotle terms this sort of recognition "a change from ignorance to awareness of a bond of love or hate."


title: Tragedy

text: In "Poetics", Aristotle gave the following definition in ancient Greek of the word "tragedy" (τραγῳδία):


title: Tragedy

text: Common usage of tragedy refers to any story with a sad ending, whereas to be an Aristotelian tragedy the story must fit the set of requirements as laid out by "Poetics". By this definition social drama cannot be tragic because the hero in it is a victim of circumstance and incidents that depend upon the society in which he lives and not upon the inner compulsions—psychological or religious—which determine his progress towards self-knowledge and death. Exactly what constitutes a "tragedy", however, is a frequently debated matter.


title: Tragedy

text: 2. Suffering, tragedies of such nature can be seen in the Greek mythological stories of Ajaxes and Ixions


title: Tragedy

text: 3. Character, a tragedy of moral or ethical character. Tragedies of this nature can be found in Phthiotides and Peleus


title: Tragedy

text: G.W.F. Hegel, the German philosopher most famous for his dialectical approach to epistemology and history, also applied such a methodology to his theory of tragedy. In his essay "Hegel's Theory of Tragedy," A.C. Bradley first introduced the English-speaking world to Hegel's theory, which Bradley called the "tragic collision", and contrasted against the Aristotelian notions of the "tragic hero" and his or her "hamartia" in subsequent analyses of the Aeschylus' "Oresteia" trilogy and of Sophocles' "Antigone". Hegel himself, however, in his seminal "The Phenomenology of Spirit" argues for a more complicated theory of tragedy, with two complementary branches which, though driven by a single dialectical principle, differentiate Greek tragedy from that which follows Shakespeare. His later lectures formulate such a theory of tragedy as a conflict of ethical forces, represented by characters, in ancient Greek tragedy, but in Shakespearean tragedy the conflict is rendered as one of subject and object, of individual personality which must manifest self-destructive passions because only such passions are strong enough to defend the individual from a hostile and capricious external world:


title: Tragedy

text: Hegel's comments on a particular play may better elucidate his theory: "Viewed externally, Hamlet's death may be seen to have been brought about accidentally... but in Hamlet's soul, we understand that death has lurked from the beginning: the sandbank of finitude cannot suffice his sorrow and tenderness, such grief and nausea at all conditions of life... we feel he is a man whom inner disgust has almost consumed well before death comes upon him from outside."


The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on April 29, 1946 to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for crimes against peace, conventional war crimes, and crimes against humanity leading up to and during the Second World War. It was modeled after the International Military Tribunal (IMT) formed several months earlier in Nuremberg, Germany to prosecute senior officials of Nazi Germany.


title: International Military Tribunal for the Far East

text: Following Japan's defeat and occupation by the Allies, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, United States General Douglas MacArthur, issued a special proclamation establishing the IMTFE. A charter was drafted to establish the court's composition, jurisdiction, procedures; the crimes were defined based on the Nuremberg charter. The Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal was composed of judges, prosecutors, and staff from eleven countries that had fought against Japan: Australia, Canada, China, France, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States; the defense comprised Japanese and American lawyers.


text: The Tokyo Trial exercised broader temporal jurisdiction than its counterpart in Nuremberg, beginning from the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Twenty-eight high-ranking Japanese military and political leaders were tried by the court, including current and former prime ministers, foreign ministers, and military commanders. They were charged with fifty-five separate counts, including the waging wars of aggression, murder, and various war crimes and crimes against humanity (such as torture and forced labor) against prisoners-of-war, civilian internees, and the inhabitants of occupied territories; ultimately, 45 of the counts, including all the murder charges, were ruled either redundant or not authorized under the IMTFE Charter.


text: By the time it adjourned on November 12, 1948, two defendants had died of natural causes and one was ruled unfit to stand trial. All remaining defendants were found guilty of at least one count, of whom seven were sentenced to death and sixteen to life imprisonment. Thousands of other "lesser" war criminals were tried by domestic tribunals convened across Asia and the Pacific by Allied nations, with most concluding by 1949.


text: The Tokyo Trial lasted more than twice as long as the better-known Nuremberg trials, and its impact was similarly influential in the development of international law; similar international war crimes tribunals would not be established until the 1990s.


text: The Tribunal was established to implement the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Declaration, the Instrument of Surrender, and the Moscow Conference. The Potsdam Declaration (July 1945) had stated, "stern justice shall be meted out to all war criminals, including those who have visited cruelties upon our prisoners," though it did not specifically foreshadow trials. The terms of reference for the Tribunal were set out in the IMTFE Charter, issued on January 19, 1946. There was major disagreement, both among the Allies and within their administrations, about whom to try and how to try them. Despite the lack of consensus, General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, decided to initiate arrests. On September 11, a week after the surrender, he ordered the arrest of 39 suspects—most of them members of General Hideki Tojo's war cabinet. Tojo tried to commit suicide but was resuscitated with the help of U.S. physicians.


text: On January 19, 1946, MacArthur issued a special proclamation ordering the establishment of an International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE). On the same day, he also approved the Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (CIMTFE), which prescribed how it was to be formed, the crimes that it was to consider, and how the tribunal was to function. The charter generally followed the model set by the Nuremberg trials. On April 25, in accordance with the provisions of Article 7 of the CIMTFE, the original Rules of Procedure of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East with amendments were promulgated.


text: Following months of preparation, the IMTFE convened on April 29, 1946. The trials were held in the War Ministry office in Tokyo.


text: On May 3 the prosecution opened its case, charging the defendants with crimes against peace, conventional war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The trial continued for more than two and a half years, hearing testimony from 419 witnesses and admitting 4,336 exhibits of evidence, including depositions and affidavits from 779 other individuals.


text: Following the model used at the Nuremberg trials in Germany, the Allies established three broad categories. "Class A" charges, alleging crimes against peace, were to be brought against Japan's top leaders who had planned and directed the war. Class B and C charges, which could be leveled at Japanese of any rank, covered conventional war crimes and crimes against humanity, respectively. Unlike the Nuremberg trials, the charge of crimes against peace was a prerequisite to prosecution—only those individuals whose crimes included crimes against peace could be prosecuted by the Tribunal. In the event, no Class C charges were heard in Tokyo.


text: The indictment accused the defendants of promoting a scheme of conquest that:[C]ontemplated and carried out ... murdering, maiming and ill-treating prisoners of war (and) civilian internees ... forcing them to labor under inhumane conditions ... plundering public and private property, wantonly destroying cities, towns and villages beyond any justification of military necessity; (perpetrating) mass murder, rape, pillage, brigandage, torture and other barbaric cruelties upon the helpless civilian population of the over-run countries.Keenan issued a press statement along with the indictment: "War and treaty-breakers should be stripped of the glamour of national heroes and exposed as what they really are—plain, ordinary murderers."


text: Any possible evidence that would incriminate Emperor Hirohito and his family was excluded from the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, as the United States believed it needed him to maintain order in Japan and achieve their postwar objectives.


text: The prosecution began opening statements on May 3, 1946, and took 192 days to present its case, finishing on January 24, 1947. It submitted its evidence in fifteen phases.


text: The Tribunal embraced the best evidence rule once the Prosecution had rested. The best evidence rule dictates that the "best" or most authentic evidence must be produced (for example, a map instead of a description of the map; an original instead of a copy; and a witness instead of a description of what the witness may have said). Justice Pal, one of two justices to vote for acquittal on all counts, observed, "in a proceeding where we had to allow the prosecution to bring in any amount of hearsay evidence, it was somewhat misplaced caution to introduce this best evidence rule particularly when it operated practically against the defense only."


text: To prove their case, the prosecution team relied on the doctrine of "command responsibility." This doctrine was that it did not require proof of criminal orders. The prosecution had to prove three things: that war crimes were systematic or widespread; the accused knew that troops were committing atrocities; and the accused had power or authority to stop the crimes.


text: Part of Article 13 of the Charter provided that evidence against the accused could include any document "without proof of its issuance or signature" as well as diaries, letters, press reports, and sworn or unsworn out-of-court statements relating to the charges. Article 13 of the Charter read, in part: "The tribunal shall not be bound by technical rules of evidence ... and shall admit any evidence which it deems to have probative value.


text: The prosecution argued that a 1927 document known as the Tanaka Memorial showed that a "common plan or conspiracy" to commit "crimes against peace" bound the accused together. Thus, the prosecution argued that the conspiracy had begun in 1927 and continued through to the end of the war in 1945. The Tanaka Memorial is now considered by most historians to have been an anti-Japanese forgery; however, it was not regarded as such at the time.


text: Wartime press releases of the Allies were admitted as evidence by the prosecution, while those sought to be entered by the defense were excluded. The recollection of a conversation with a long-dead man was admitted. Letters allegedly written by Japanese citizens were admitted with no proof of authenticity and no opportunity for cross examination by the defense.


text: The defendants were represented by over a hundred attorneys, three-quarters of them Japanese and one-quarter American, plus a support staff. The defense opened its case on January 27, 1947, and finished its presentation 225 days later on September 9, 1947.


text: The defense argued that the trial could never be free from substantial doubt as to its "legality, fairness and impartiality."


text: The defense challenged the indictment, arguing that crimes against peace, and more specifically, the undefined concepts of conspiracy and aggressive war, had yet to be established as crimes in international law; in effect, the IMTFE was contradicting accepted legal procedure by trying the defendants retroactively for violating laws which had not existed when the alleged crimes had been committed. The defense insisted that there was no basis in international law for holding individuals responsible for acts of state, as the Tokyo Trial proposed to do. The defense attacked the notion of negative criminality, by which the defendants were to be tried for failing to prevent breaches of law and war crimes by others, as likewise having no basis in international law.


text: Former Foreign Minister Shigenori Tōgō maintained that Japan had had no choice but to enter the war for self-defense purposes. He asserted that "[because of the Hull Note] we felt at the time that Japan was being driven either to war or suicide."


text: After the defense had finished its presentation on September 9, 1947 the IMT spent fifteen months reaching judgement and drafting its 1,781-page opinion. The reading of the judgement and the sentences lasted from December 4 to 12, 1948. Five of the eleven justices released separate opinions outside the court.


text: In his concurring opinion Justice William Webb of Australia took issue with Emperor Hirohito's legal status, writing, "The suggestion that the Emperor was bound to act on advice is contrary to the evidence." While refraining from personal indictment of Hirohito, Webb indicated that Hirohito bore responsibility as a constitutional monarch who accepted "ministerial and other advice for war" and that "no ruler can commit the crime of launching aggressive war and then validly claim to be excused for doing so because his life would otherwise have been in danger ... It will remain that the men who advised the commission of a crime, if it be one, are in no worse position than the man who directs the crime be committed."


text: Justice Delfín Jaranilla of the Philippines disagreed with the penalties imposed by the tribunal as being "too lenient, not exemplary and deterrent, and not commensurate with the gravity of the offence or offences committed."


text: Justice Henri Bernard of France argued that the tribunal's course of action was flawed due to Hirohito's absence and the lack of sufficient deliberation by the judges. He concluded that Japan's declaration of war "had a principal author who escaped all prosecution and of whom in any case the present Defendants could only be considered as accomplices" and that a "verdict reached by a Tribunal after a defective procedure cannot be a valid one."


text: "It is well-nigh impossible to define the concept of initiating or waging a war of aggression both accurately and comprehensively," wrote Justice Bert Röling of the Netherlands in his dissent. He stated, "I think that not only should there have been neutrals in the court, but there should have been Japanese also." He argued that they would always have been a minority and therefore would not have been able to sway the balance of the trial. However, "they could have convincingly argued issues of government policy which were unfamiliar to the Allied justices." Pointing out the difficulties and limitations in holding individuals responsible for an act of state and making omission of responsibility a crime, Röling called for the acquittal of several defendants, including Hirota.


text: Justice Radhabinod Pal of India produced a judgment in which he dismissed the legitimacy of the IMTFE as victor's justice: "I would hold that each and every one of the accused must be found not guilty of each and every one of the charges in the indictment and should be acquitted on all those charges." While taking into account the influence of wartime propaganda, exaggerations, and distortions of facts in the evidence, and "over-zealous" and "hostile" witnesses, Pal concluded, "The evidence is still overwhelming that atrocities were perpetrated by the members of the Japanese armed forces against the civilian population of some of the territories occupied by them as also against the prisoners of war."


text: Six defendants were sentenced to death by hanging for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against peace (Class A, Class B and Class C):


text: One defendant was sentenced to death by hanging for war crimes and crimes against humanity (Class B and Class C):


text: The seven defendants who were sentenced to death were executed at Sugamo Prison in Ikebukuro on December 23, 1948. MacArthur, afraid of embarrassing and antagonizing the Japanese people, defied the wishes of President Truman and barred photography of any kind, instead bringing in four members of the Allied Council to act as official witnesses.


text: Sixteen defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment. Three (Koiso, Shiratori, and Umezu) died in prison, while the other thirteen were paroled between 1954 and 1956:


text: The verdict and sentences of the tribunal were confirmed by MacArthur on November 24, 1948, two days after a perfunctory meeting with members of the Allied Control Commission for Japan, who acted as the local representatives of the nations of the Far Eastern Commission. Six of those representatives made no recommendations for clemency. Australia, Canada, India, and the Netherlands were willing to see the general make some reductions in sentences. He chose not to do so. The issue of clemency was thereafter to disturb Japanese relations with the Allied powers until the late 1950s, when a majority of the Allied powers agreed to release the last of the convicted major war criminals from captivity.


text: More than 5,700 lower-ranking personnel were charged with conventional war crimes in separate trials convened by Australia, China, France, the Netherlands Indies, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The charges covered a wide range of crimes including prisoner abuse, rape, sexual slavery, torture, ill-treatment of laborers, execution without trial, and inhumane medical experiments. The trials took place in around fifty locations in Asia and the Pacific. Most trials were completed by 1949, but Australia held some trials in 1951. China held 13 tribunals, resulting in 504 convictions and 149 executions.


text: Of the 5,700 Japanese individuals indicted for Class B war crimes, 984 were sentenced to death; 475 received life sentences; 2,944 were given more limited prison terms; 1,018 were acquitted; and 279 were never brought to trial or not sentenced. The number of death sentences by country is as follows: the Netherlands 236, United Kingdom 223, Australia 153, China 149, United States 140, France 26, and Philippines 17.


text: The Soviet Union and Chinese Communist forces also held trials of Japanese war criminals. The Khabarovsk War Crime Trials held by the Soviets tried and found guilty some members of Japan's bacteriological and chemical warfare unit, also known as Unit 731. However, those who surrendered to the Americans were never brought to trial. As Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, MacArthur gave immunity to Shiro Ishii and all members of the bacteriological research units in exchange for germ warfare data based on human experimentation. On May 6, 1947, he wrote to Washington that "additional data, possibly some statements from Ishii probably can be obtained by informing Japanese involved that information will be retained in intelligence channels and will not be employed as 'War Crimes' evidence." The deal was concluded in 1948.