1945 Project

中山 俊宏 NAKAYAMA Toshihiro @tnak0214

トランプが武漢ウィルスと発言するのを眺めて一緒に喜んでいる日本人の様子に違和感を感じている留学生の文章を読む。本来なら日本は米国において大統領主導でアジア人に対するヘイトクライムが高まることに懸念を示すべきであって、アメリカ人の多くが中国系と日系の区別つかないことを忘れていると。

米国政治の研究者である中山 俊宏さんのツイートを見て、先月雑誌TIMEがAsian Americanについて大きく取り上げていたのを思い出しました。シンパサイザーを書いたヴィエト タン ウェンのエッセイも読み応えがありましたが、気になったのはHaruka Sakaguchiという日系アーティスト。

Asian Americans Are Still Caught in the Trap of the ‘Model Minority’ Stereotype. And It Creates Inequality for All

Viet Thanh Nguyen  June 25, 2020 Updated: June 25, 2020 6:37 AM

10人のアジア系アメリカ人が登場して自身が経験した人種差別を語っていますが、記事の写真は彼女が撮影したもののようです。

LIGHTBOX COVID-19 

'I Will Not Stand Silent.' 10 Asian Americans Reflect on Racism During the Pandemic and the Need for Equality

TEXT BY ANNA PURNA KAMBHAMPATY | PHOTOGRAPHS BY HARUKA SAKAGUCHI FOR TIME

JUNE 25, 2020 6:32 AM EDT

Since May, Sakaguchi has been photographing individuals in New York City who have faced this type of racist aggression. The resulting portraits, which were taken over FaceTime, have been lain atop the sites, also photographed by Sakaguchi, where the individuals were harassed or assaulted. “We are often highly, highly encouraged not to speak about these issues and try to look at the larger picture. Especially as immigrants and the children of immigrants, as long as we are able to build a livelihood of any kind, that’s considered a good existence,” says Sakaguchi, who hopes her images inspire people to at least acknowledge their experiences.

彼女自身も差別に直面した経験を語っています。

Haruka Sakaguchi

Before Sakaguchi started this photo project, she was waiting in line to enter a grocery store on March 21 when a man came up behind her, hovering and making her feel uncomfortable. She politely asked him for some space, to which he responded, “What’d you say to me, chink?” He then proceeded to cut in front of her.

“Before the Black Lives Matter protests, I had contextualized my incident as an act of aggression by a single individual—a ‘bad apple,’ so to speak,” she says. “But after witnessing the unfolding of the anti­racism movements and encountering heated debates between police abolitionists and those who cling to the ‘few bad apples’ theory, I came to realize that I too had internalized the ‘bad apple’ narrative. I gave my aggressor—an elderly white man—the benefit of the doubt.

“As an immigrant, I have been so thoroughly conditioned to think that white Americans are individuals that I wrote him into an imagined narrative in a protagonist role, even while he had so vehemently denied me of my own individuality by calling me a ‘chink.’ The protests have brought public attention to the idea that individuality is a luxury afforded to a privileged class, no matter how reckless their behavior or how consequential their actions.”

少し前の雑誌の記事を紹介したくなったのは被爆者の写真とメッセージを集めた1945というプロジェクトを立ち上げていたから。被爆者のメッセージは英語の翻訳もあるのでより多くの人に届くようになっています。

1945 Project

The year 1945 is remembered differently in every country. For the Japanese, it is the year of the Jewel Voice Broadcast, when the emperor addressed his “subjects” for the first time after 14 years of conflict. For Americans, it is the year when WWII was punctuated by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which effectively curtailed many more American and Japanese deaths. For those in Manchuria, it is the year when governing hands abruptly switched from the Imperial Japanese Army to Soviet-backed communist regimes, resulting in tens of thousands of war-displaced peoples and orphans. For many other Asian nations, it is the year of liberation from Japanese colonial rule and brutalities.

1945 is a documentary project by photographer Haruka Sakaguchi. What began as a portrait series of atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki – also known as hibakusha – evolved into a web project with in-depth testimonies, a historical timeline and resources to honor a rapidly aging hibakusha community. Although seven decades have passed since the bombing, the events of 1945 still affect international relations today. In fact, key aspects that led to the culmination of the atomic bomb attacks – ultranationalism, unilateralism, vast military spending – have reemerged in the previous decade. With current nuclear weapon stockpiles reaching over 15,000 – some over 3,000 times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima – there is an ever pressing need to revisit the hibakushas’ testimonies.

彼女の取り組みはスミソニアンの記事でも紹介されていました。

NINE EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS OF THE BOMBINGS OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI

Seventy-five years ago, the atomic blasts killed an estimated 200,000 people

BY MEILAN SOLLY

Sakaguchiさんは鬼海 弘雄という写真家に影響を受けたとYouTubeで語っていました。知らなかったので図書館にでも行って確認しようと思います。