shashasha

Inspiration is always triggered by a small incident.

In the last few months, a number of TV and radio programs and other medias have been featuring on Japan's 70th anniversary after the end of World War II. There is a lot of variety from region to region how they cover war-related events including memorial services for the war dead being held all over Japan. We, however, know noting about what was happening more than 70 years ago in our country, in our home Kyushu, and how the time ticked away till now. Japan has severa territorial issues with neigboring countries, such as the Senkaku Islands issue with China, and the Takeshima issue with South Korea in recent years. Starting from North Korea's missile threats, the national diet has been seriously discussing Japan's sercurityprelated measures, including the right to collective defense. These movements made me think about war and peace again.

We decided that the theme of the third issue is "Kagoshima", the name of the place situated in the southernmost part of Kyushu Island. Kagoshima was to be invaded by the US military under Operation Olympic * scheduled for the 1st of November, 1945. In order to prepare for the coming decisive battles in the mainland of Japan, Kagoshima boasted a number of military facilities, such as fortresses and airports of Kamikaze suicide corps flying offf to Okinawa. In the last phase of the war, many citizens in Kagoshima were killed by a series of intensive attacks. After overcoming deep sorrow and suffereing, we are living at this very moment. We spend out daily lives as if nothing had happened before, but we are now entering a period of dramatic change.

We were inspired a lot during our visit to Kagoshima. We asked ourselves how we will be able to express this inspiration with our cameras and photographs, so-called media. Although it might be a subtle and small step, what we should do now to ensure our peaceful daily lives is to closely look at and to record the place as it is.

• Operation Olympic, the invasion of Kyushu, was to begin on "X-Day", which was scheduled for the 1st of November 1945. The invasion was not inteded to conquer the entire island, just the southermost third of Kyushu Island, Japan.

-Publishing members of the Coterie Photo Magazine KYUSHU, 2015.