SACRED SITE. Banta, an exhibit of photos by Osamu James Nakagawa documenting the cliffs of Okinawa — the site of mass suicides at the end of World War II — is on display at the Newspace Center for Photography in southeast Portland through November 1. (Photos courtesy of the Newspace Center for Photography)

From The Asian Reporter, V19, #40 (October 13, 2009), page 11.

By Allison Voigts

Osamu James Nakagawa’s photographs are nauseating.

At first glance, the tall, thin prints project all the elements of a beautiful landscape — stormy skies, azure water, and towering cliffs. Then you notice a tiny dot in the lower corner of a photograph. It is a fisherman’s bucket of bait, viewed from hundreds of feet overhead. At least one portion of this photograph is sideways, taken from a totally different perspective than it first appeared. That’s when vertigo sets in.

"I want viewers to feel that sense of falling," says the Japanese-American photographer, whose latest exhibit, Banta, is on display at Portland’s Newspace Center for Photography through November 1.

Banta depicts a site on Okinawa Island where scores of Okinawan citizens committed mass suicide by throwing themselves from cliffs during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II. Approximately a quarter of the island’s civilian population died during the battle from artillery fire, air attacks, and suicide, which Japanese troops encouraged Okinawans to commit before the invading U.S. troops captured the island. In English and Japanese, the battle is often referred to as the "Typhoon of Steel" because of the sheer number of armored vehicles and artillery that descended on the tropical island.

Nakagawa, who was raised in Tokyo, Japan and Houston, Texas, visited Okinawa for the first time in 2001 because his wife’s family hails from the island. During his two-week tour, Nakagawa visited the Cornerstone of Peace memorial at the site of the cliffs, where he saw footage of the battle and the suicides for the first time.

"I had heard about all of it before, but had never seen the images. It was hell," he says.

When he walked outside to the cliffs, it wasn’t hard to imagine the experience of the 82-day battle in 1945. The faces of the cliffs bear black and white scars from the bombardment of metal, and waves crash over the jagged rocks that pierced fallen bodies.

Drawn by the sense of fear and beauty the cliffs inspired, Nakagawa returned in 2005 to start taking pictures. The cliffs presented several technical challenges. He attempted to capture them from a boat, but couldn’t get as close or as steady of shots as he needed. Then he saw a fisherman wend his way to the base of the cliffs at low tide, where coral reef juts out into the water. From there Nakagawa studied and photographed the shapes and shadows of the cliffs using a telephoto lens.

Nakagawa treats his photographs like sketches, which he carefully combines in his studio to create a cohesive canvas. He plays with color, saturation, and perspective until each seamless work projects the mood he wants.

"Is that a real landscape?" asks a visitor at the Banta reception, pointing to a print of a pockmarked rock face with a streak of red running down its center.

"Yes and no," the artist replies. He explains that wide shots of the landscape, taken at a distance, offer little of the emotional experience of his digitally reworked images.

This year Nakagawa received a Guggenheim Fellowship grant to continue his project on the island, where he will next focus his lens on the sacred caves where Okinawans also committed suicide during the battle.

Banta is on display at the Newspace Center for Photography, located at 1632 S.E. 10th Avenue in Portland, through November 1. The gallery is open Monday through Thursday from 10:00am to 10:30pm and Friday through Sunday from 10:00am to 6:00pm. To learn more, call (503) 963-1935 or visit <www.newspacephoto.org/gallery>. To see more work by Osamu James Nakagawa, visit <www.osamujamesnakagawa.com>.