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APAs Capture Images of War

Photo exhibit expresses anti-military sentiment

By Titania Leung Inglis
Special to AsianWeek

Wide-eyed Iraqi children guzzling Pepsi. Afghan men playing a traditional game on horseback. A Palestinian boy gazing at the rubble of a bombed-out building. These and other human faces of the current war are among the poignant images of “In The Face of War: Asian Photographers View Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Philippines & USA,” which runs through Nov. 30 at the Asian Resource Gallery in Oakland.

Seven Bay Area photographers contributed pictures and text for the exhibition, a co-presentation of the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation and the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition against War (APICAW). Among the photographs, displayed stylishly in black cases, several themes emerge: the shattered innocence of children; the menace of military presence; the rampant destruction of homes, schools and other buildings; and the endangered beauty of native cultures.

A defiant anti-war sentiment prevailed at the Oct. 15 opening night, as some 50 activists, students, photographers and writers gathered at the gallery in Oakland’s Chinatown. Exhibition curator Greg Morozumi introduced APICAW organizer Sun Hyung Lee, who kicked off the event with a warning about “the use of war to pull the United States out of a recession at the expense of the rest of the world.”

Nobu Sakamoto’s photo of Afghan men playing a traditional game on horseback.

Photographers Maryam Gharavi, Nobu Sakamoto, Bruce Akizuki, Mizue Aizeki and Vina Ha were in attendance. Only Lisa Juachon and Drew Mendoza, whose photographs depict the U.S. military presence in the Philippines, were absent.

Gharavi gave an impassioned speech about her recent visit to Iraq, describing the people’s dread of impending American attacks and their view of the United States as “a greater enemy” than Saddam Hussein. Her colorful photos illustrate daily life in that country, including a hand-painted poster of Leonardo DiCaprio and a burst of sunshine creeping under the arched roof of a ruined building.

Sakamoto’s eloquent images of Afghanistan speak volumes, but the photographer was eager to tell his story. After Sept. 11, he recalled, he “was glued to the television to see what was going on” in Afghanistan, but he wanted to see more than all the footage of al Qaida training camps and nighttime bombings. So when his friend Pratap Chatterjee offered him a chance to travel to Afghanistan as a videographer for Free Speech Radio, Sakamoto jumped at the opportunity to see the country firsthand.

All during their stay, he said, he and Chatterjee were welcomed by the Afghan people and escorted anywhere they wanted to go. “It’s a very hospitable country,” the photographer reminisced. “It was very eye-opening for both of us.” He returned with a series of dazzling photographs of life in the country’s refugee camps and destroyed cities, and with a newfound appreciation for Afghan culture.

Fellow photographer Akizuki didn’t have to travel far from home to take his photographs, which mostly depict San Francisco rallies. Akizuki, a regular APICAW volunteer who says he has been an activist for 20 years and a photographer for 15, hopes his work in documenting social movements can “show that Asian Americans have a history of struggling for peace and social justice.” Also, he pointed out, “there are a lot of misconceptions of what’s happening in the world, and even in the United States.”

The exhibitors emphasized that there was an important message in the exhibition for APAs in particular. Admonished Sakamoto, “We as Asian Americans have a special responsibility toward all our Asian relatives to show support and solidarity, and not to allow the mass hysteria of wartime to take over.”

Curator Morozumi warned, “It’s important to be vigilant about the development of this so-called war on terrorism, because Asia has been pinpointed as one of the key targets.” He hoped the exhibition would help to “put a face to those people who live in those nations that are under attack by the United States government. What the United States is doing, fighting those wars, is not for national security. It’s for hegemony over resources and power.”