1/4. In Puccini's Madama Butterfly, an American naval officer procures a 15-year-old Japanese girl for casual sex on a long-term contract. She falls pregnant and, with the connivance of the diplomatic service, the baby is removed from the care of its mother, resulting in her suicide.
Huw Edwards finds that this shocking story has its basis in truth, and that Puccini's image of Japan ignored the birth of a new superpower. Repeated from Tuesday