My Thoughts on the Traveling Exhibition in Okinawa

By: Shinya Watanabe (Exhibition curator)

"I like Okinawa"

After I mentioned this to my friend from Okinawa, he told me this:

"If I were 10 years younger, I would have punched you right at this spot."

He then began to lay emphasis on how I have been saying I like Okinawa without understanding Okinawa. I countered that such response would be rude to anyone who says they like Okinawa, and the conversation ended up moving along on different tracks. Through this exchange, there was only one thing I understood:

   --- I don’t know Okinawa ---

What can I possibly do in Okinawa when I don’t know Okinawa?

During World War II, lives of many ordinary people were lost during the ground battle in Okinawa.

Through the experience of war and 27 years of occupation by U.S. forces, the majority of the people of Okinawa assert their longing for peace.

What have the artists who were born in this place called Okinawa expressed through their work based on the theme of the ideals of Article 9, the reversion of Okinawa and its identity in this post-war era?

This traveling exhibition at the Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum is titled “Into the Atomic Sunshine in Okinawa,” and in addition to the works exhibited at the traveling exhibition in New York and Tokyo, post World War II art works from Okinawa are also included in this exhibition.

My hope is that through these post-war art works and their expressions, they will create opportunities to share and reflect upon the themes of Article 9 and post-war art among the Okinawans, the Japanese citizens and people around the world and to smooth the way for the coming future.

(Translated by Harutaka Oribe)