Republic of Upper Volta Republic of Upper Volta The Republic of Upper Volta (), now Burkina Faso, was a landlocked West African country established on December 11, 1958, as a self-governing colony within the French Community. Before attaining autonomy it had been French Upper Volta and part of the French Union. On August 5, 1960, it attained full independence from France. Thomas Sankara came to power through a military coup d'état on August 4, 1983. After the coup, he formed the National Council for the Revolution (CNR), with himself as president. Under the direction of Sankara, the country changed its name on August 4,
The Garden of Words seeing the finished product. According to Shinkai's announcement of the film early during its production, "The Garden of Words" was his first attempt at making a love story using the traditional Japanese meaning of "love". During the era of the Man'yōshū, the native Japanese words today known as were starting to be written using kanji, and the word for "love", "koi" (today written 恋) was written as 孤悲, or "lonely sadness". As noted by Shinkai, a more modern concept of "romance", represented by , came about by Western influence. "The Garden of Words" emphasizes the original meaning of "koi"—a "longing