Last Combat Veteran of World War I Dies

Britain's last male WWI Veteran.

Thursday, 5 May 2011

Claude Choules, the last known surviving combat veteran of World War One, has died in an Australian nursing home two months after celebrating his 110th birthday.

His family says Choules died in his sleep early Thursday morning in the western city of Perth.

The British-born Choules joined the Royal Navy at the age of 14, a year after the outbreak of World War One. He witnessed the surrender of the German Imperial Navy in 1918 and the scuttling of the German naval fleet off the waters of Scotland the following year.

He was assigned to the Royal Australian Navy in 1926, and served as a chief demolition officer during World War Two. He searched Fremantle Harbor for enemy mines and wired merchant ships to be destroyed in the event of an invasion by Japanese forces.

After retiring from the RAN in 1956, Choules settled down near Perth with his wife Ethel, whom he met during his voyage to Australia. She died in 2003. He recounted his wartime experiences in his autobiography, “The Last of the Last,” which he published at the age of 108.

The last known American World War One veteran, Frank Buckles, passed away in February at the age of 110. Another Briton, Florence Green, served during the war in a non-combat role in the Royal Air Force.

Man Who Helped Pioneer Music CD Dies

Man Who Helped Pioneer Music CD Dies
Sunday, 24 April 2011

The aspiring opera singer and Sony executive credited with the creation and success of the compact disc has died.

Sony said former president and chairman Norio Ohga died Saturday in Tokyo of multiple organ failure at the age of 81.

Sony executives persuaded Ohga to give up on a career in opera and join the company in the 1950s after he complained about the sound quality of Sony’s tape recorders.

Ohga rose quickly within the company to become a key executive, and helped pioneer work on the compact disc, or CD, promising it would one day overtake records as a main platform for selling music.

It was also upon Ohga’s insistence that the CD was designed to be 12 centimeters in diameter and hold 74 minutes worth of music – enough to hold the entirety of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Sony introduced the CD in 1982, the same year Ohga became Sony president. The Associated Press reports that five years later, CD sales overtook record sales in Japan.

Ohga remained as Sony president until 1995, and then stayed on at Sony as chairman for several more years.

He is also credited with molding Sony into an entertainment giant with the purchase of the Columbia Pictures movie studio, now Sony Pictures Entertainment, in 1989 and the creation of Sony’s PlayStation video gaming division.

Ohga graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and the Berlin University of the Arts. He continued to support classical music throughout his life, supporting young musicians and concerts in Japan.

Current Sony Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer said Saturday that it was Ohga’s ‘foresight and vision’ that helped Sony expand beyond audio and video products and turn into a global entertainment leader.

First American Baseball Star in Japan, Wally Kaname Yonamine, Dies at 85

Wally Yonamine, 1951.

First American Baseball Star in Japan, Wally Kaname Yonamine, Dies at 85
Wednesday, 2 March 2011

The first American to play professional baseball in Japan after World War Two and changed Japanese baseball forever, has died.

Wally Kaname Yonamine was 85 when he died of prostate cancer earlier this week in his native Hawaii.

Yonamine played professional football for the San Francisco 49rs when an injury forced him to give up the game and turn his talents to baseball.

After several years in the U.S. Pacific Coast League, Yonamine moved to Japan in 1951 and signed with the Yomiuri Giants, the premier Japanese team.

Yonamine shocked the Japanese by introducing the aggressive American-style of play to the more genteel and sedate Japanese game. Fans reacted with boos and rocks and also resented his U.S. heritage.

Yonamine helped lead the Giants to the 1951 championship and other players adopted the American style while teams signed more and more Americans.

Yonamine later became a coach and manager and a member of the Japanese baseball hall of fame.