On Okinawa Memorial Day, which is today, Sakima Art Museum in Okinawa Prefecture’s city of Ginowan charges no admission fee.
The museum is famous for its “Okinawasen no Zu,” a collection of paintings depicting the Battle of Okinawa.
The museum is waiving the fee so that as many people as possible will see the museum’s special exhibition of original artwork by Yukihiko Tajima, 86, a picture book author.
According to director Michio Sakima, picture books about the Battle of Okinawa are few and far between, which makes Tajima’s work especially precious. Sakima is thankful to Tajima for “confronting the brutal reality head-on.”
When I visited Tajima in his atelier on verdant Awajishima island, he stopped what he was doing to welcome me.
Tajima became a regular visitor to Okinawa about 50 years ago, captivated by its culture and nature. And the more he researched the Battle of Okinawa, the deeper his sense of dismay grew.
While struggling to find a way to make Okinawa’s reality known to outsiders, he also started second-guessing himself, questioning the authenticity of his “understanding” of the pain of the people of Okinawa.
In his 80s, Tajima finally decided to confront the realities of the Battle of Okinawa as his “last assignment.”
And he remembered himself as a toddler: “I was called ‘noroma no Bu-chan’ (slowpoke Bu-chan) because I was a sickly kid. Also, I was almost killed by machine gun fire from U.S. military aircraft. Had I been born in Okinawa, what would have happened to me?”
To depict terror and dread, he used the “kataezome” stencil dyeing method to build up layers of colors.
In his latest work, he revisited the experiences of the survivors of the Tsushima Maru tragedy in 1944 in which more than 1,400 civilians, many of them schoolchildren, were killed in a U.S. submarine torpedo attack while being evacuated from Okinawa.
In preparation for a contingency, the Japanese government last year announced an evacuation plan for about 120,000 residents of Miyako and Yaeyama islands.
To Tajima, this feels like history repeating itself.
“By telling (the Tsushima Maru story) in a picture book, I can reach the hearts of children,” he said.
From the roof of the museum, I had a sweeping view of the neighboring U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.
Many students on school trips visit this place where the past and the present intersect.
—The Asahi Shimbun, June 23
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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.
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