Hiromu Arakawa Hiromu Arakawa Born on May 8, 1973, in Tokachi, Hokkaidō, Japan, Arakawa was born and raised on a dairy farm with three elder sisters and a younger brother. Arakawa thought about being a manga artist "since [she] was little" and during her school years, she would often draw on textbooks. After graduating high school, she took oil painting classes once a month for seven years while working on her family's farm. During this time, she also created dōjinshi manga with her friends and drew yonkoma for a magazine. Arakawa moved to Tokyo in the summer of 1999, and started her
Japanese gunboat Sumida (1903) Japanese gunboat Sumida (1903) "Sumida" was the first gunboat in the Imperial Japanese Navy inventory designed specifically for inland river service. The need for such a vessel to operate on the rivers of the Asian mainland to protect Japanese commercial interests at various treaty ports had been perceived even before the Boxer Rebellion. The Japanese government turned to the United Kingdom, and placed an order for such two such vessels in 1903: one the "Sumida" to John I. Thornycroft & Company and the other to Yarrow Shipbuilders in Scotland. "Sumida", was slightly larger than "Fushimi" and easily distinguishable by having