Osamu FUNAO
"Japanese Remnants of War in Philipines"
Pages: 132 / photos: 116
Size: 200×225×16mm / 1080g / hardcover
Price: 4,500JPY
Release Date: December 2015
Web-site |
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I first found out about the descendants of Japanese immigrants,
often called Nikkeijin, whose lives were uprooted by World War II during a trip to
the mountains of Northern Luzon in 2008.
I was there to photograph the area’s thousands of terraced rice paddies, which are
registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In Kiangan, one of the small towns in the mountains, is a war memorial commemorating
6Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita’s surrender to the United States.
I met some descendants of Japanese immigrants there and was shocked to hear of their
suffering during and after WWII.
Japanese immigrants began arriving in the U.S.-occupied Philippines around the
beginning of the 20th century. Most were labors who worked in road construction or
on plantations growing abaca hemp for fiber. Thanks to their hard work, most earned
enough to live independently just before war broke out. By then, about 30,000
Japanese had immigrated to the Philippines, making it one of the biggest Japanese
communities in Southeast Asia. Many immigrants married local people and started
families.
The second generation Nikkeijin born into these families remember the time before
the war as peaceful and quiet.
According to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, there were 3,545 second-generation
Nikkeijin in the Philippines. Only 1,058 of them have had their Japanese citizenship
restored by locating and identifying their fathers. Of the remaining 2,487 people,
1,288 have already passed away. At least 1,199 people still living have not been
able to recover their nationality. Their average age is 76 years old.
(Excerpts from the author's foreword) |
Osamu FUNAO
"Kamisama Hotokesama"
Pages: 192/ photos: 143
Size: 154x230x18mm / hard cover
Price: 2,310JPY
Release Date: September 2008
Web-site |
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Quiet gardens,
The secret permanence
At the corner of my eye,
Opening and closing, a Pandora’s Box
Quiet gardens,
The hidden experience
At the dreamy window,
Looking and hiding, an old key of reality
Quiet gardens,
The secret Edens
Broken and cured, the faraway permanence
Slumber is drifting,
In a Miniascape of the dawn
(Excerpts from the author's foreword) |