About Book 

沖縄と日本のあいだを全力で漂い、民族の感情に触れる写真集。

ここには「ヤマトンチュ」も、「ウチナーンチュ」も知ろうとしない沖縄・琉球・OKINAWA がある。沖縄、それは日本の、アジアの「腑」であり、アジアの理想なのだ。
---- 姜尚中(東京大学名誉教授)

ことばだけでは伝えることができない沖縄と日本の深層をこの作品は見事に表現している。沖縄と日本の関係に関心をもつ全ての人に薦める。
---- 佐藤優（作家・元外務省主任分析官）

基地問題をはじめとして、様々な抑圧と無責任な憧れを受け続けている沖縄を都会に生まれ育った「内地人（ルビ：ナイチャー）」である著者が1年3ヶ月の間移住し、撮影し続けた。美しい風景のなか、知らず知らずのうちに目を背けてきた部分まで見つめることで沖縄を知ってゆくための一冊。

「日本にとって沖縄とは何か？ 沖縄にとって日本とは何か？戦後70年を迎える今、彼らの複雑な思いを受け止めつつ、日本と沖縄のより良い未来を共に模索していく機会を提供できればと思う。我々の心一つで、対話への道はまだ開かれている。」
　――初沢亜利（本書所収「沖縄滞在を振り返る」より）

The islands that compose Okinawa, Japan's southernmost prefecture, extend across some one thousand miles of the Pacific Ocean. Throughout their history, these islands have served as a hub of Asian cultural and commercial interchange, political repression, and during WW2, brutal warfare. These intertwined strands of culture and history are woven into the tapestry that is Okinawa today.

The average American citizen would most likely be able to recognize Okinawa as the site of a major battle between the US Army and Marines against the remnants of the Japanese military near the end of the Second World War. Few would likely be aware that a third of Okinawa's civilian population was lost during the war. Although many Americans - particularly those from military families - would know Okinawa to be the location of one of the US' many overseas military bases, they would unlikely to know that these same bases occupy some 18% of the main island of Okinawa or that the US military's jurisdiction over Okinawa did not end until 1972.

Photojournalist Ari Hatsuzawa, a photographer who has previously documented Iraq and North Korea, has focused his lens closer to home this time, on the contemporary culture of Japan's southern islands. Here, rendered in the saturated palette of the tropical sun, we find a rough, often humorous, sometimes surreal view of the uniquely amplified human tornado comprising the island's population.

With a knack those familiar with classic street photography and photojournalism will no doubt recognize, Hatsuzawa presents photo after photo of deftly snapped cultural exchanges, the subjects themselves often oblivious to the dark humor of their own situations. Symbolism abounds throughout this book - an elementary school-age cheerleader skips past US and Japanese servicemen standing in front of rocket launchers, golfers play on courses peppered with traditional tombs under the azure sky, while on the next page, in a rocky cove, American servicemen on leave float leisurely on inner-tubes with beers in hand, hamming it up for Hatsuzawa's Nikon. The mood of the photos slowly changes as the pages are turned: we find fewer women in kimono in overly heavy makeup, fewer customized, hot rod motorcycles, and more military hardware, more chain-link, and more uniformed security keeping protestors at bay. We see more concrete, more camera lenses, and more politics.

The future of Okinawa is still unknown - indeed, it is still in the process of being woven. With this collection of images, Hatsuzawa gives a vibrant yet conflicted response to the request with which this book is entitled.

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Artist Information

1973 Born in Paris, France
Graduated from the Department of Sociology in Faculty of Letters at Sophia University
Completed 13th Corps Photographic Workshop
Started to work as a photographer after worked at Iino Hiroo Studio