Since the end of World War II, Japan has been an extremely peaceful country, knowing no war and comparatively little of the kinds of civil strife most other countries experience from time to time. Japan knows it’s one of the most peaceful places on Earth, and often describes itself with the word heiwa-boke (hei-WA boh-keh), literally meaning “stupid from too much peace,” referring to the tendency of Japanese to view the rest of the world as if it were as safe and harmonious as Japan is. You don’t imagine modern Japanese going off to battlefields that often, yet that’s just what celebrated war “cameraman” (photographer) Yoichi Watanabe does all the time. For the past 18 years, Mr. Watanabe has travelled to dozens of countries to document the lives of people there, most recently finishing a tour with the American military in Afghanistan. Last week he visited my son’s school to talk with the students about what it was like for a Japanese from a tiny island nation like Japan to travel to places like Rwanda and Chechnya, and my son said it was very interesting. (Mr. Watanabe also does non-war photography from time to time, like the new photobook we posted to J-List today.)
War photographer Yoichi Watanabe, and his trademark hat.
