shashasha

The book “Furusato wa senjo datta” (“My home was a battlefield”) consists of six series by Okinawan photographer Minoru Yamada. After having fought in the Kwantung Army in the Second World War, being captured and interned in a labor camp in Siberia for two years and coming back to Japan in 1947, Yamada decided to return to his home of Okinawa in 1952. His photographs tell of the life in post-war Okinawa, with many wounds not yet healed. A true realist photographer, Yamada obvserved his subjects with an almost cold-seeming neutrality, perhaps influenced by his many close encounters with death during his time in the war. The harsh reality of daily life is apparent in his images as much as the optimism and resoluteness of the ordinary, nameless people he photographed, and despite the absence of obvious political motifs his brilliantly composed images of individuals still reveal to us much about the larger connections and events of the time.

Please note that all texts – including two essays – are only included in Japanese language.