Hiroshima Peace Park: Photographs and JSL Video Testimonies

My research trip this summer was to Hiroshima. The first place I went to was the Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park and Museum. I have been there before, on August 6, 1997. My companion was a proud Hawaiian-American of Japanese descent. He expressed many mixed emotions about our visit. I remember being overwhelmed with disbelief, sadness, anger... How could this have ever happened? (Why didn't I learn much about this in my history classes?) How can we prevent this from happening again? The artifacts, photographs and artwork were moving and powerful. Everyone, no matter what their politics or thoughts about WWII, needs to see this, to experience this.

On my second trip, after I purchased my ticket I asked if I could take photographs of the exhibition. The answer was yes, as long as I didn't use flash or anything else distracting. As I entered, I asked myself, why do I want to take pictures here? What would I do with them? Pictures of pictures taken out of the context of the reserved and solemn whole of the presentation would gut the experience. So I put my cameras away. Other visitors were snapping away on their smart phones - I wondered how they decided to choose which shots they took.

As I was leaving the museum, I realized I had seen these photos before. I am not talking about my trip 28 years ago, but what I see on the TV news and social media every day: Gaza, Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Ethiopia, Haiti... the list goes on and on. The contexts and situations are different. But they are sites of massive poverty, death, devastation and stupid, unnecessary violence utilizing advanced technological weapons (and some old-fashioned tactics as well). The power of photography is waning. These scenes are just not shocking to many people these days. So I wonder what kind of impact a visit to the Hiroshima Peace Museum would have on my students today. (This is the seed of a future class lecture; any input or suggestions are welcome.)

Still, I urge my students and everyone to go.

One thing I noticed this time, and I don't remember seeing it 28 years ago, was the use of monitors that had videos explaining some of the exhibition in Japanese Sign Language. That the museum seems concerned with barrier-free and accessibility must be noted. According to their website, they offer human interpreters for two languages: English and JSL. They also have video exhibitions of hibakusha (surviving victims of the atomic bombs). Here are some examples that can be found on YouTube:

Sign Language Testimony of Hiroshima by Tomoe Kurokawa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxR540tLiT8

Sign Language Testimony of Hiroshima - Mr. Toshihisa Nakata: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK5igwUPLjg

Sign Language Testimony of Hiroshima – Mr. Katsumi Takabu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhUyLIdOA9U

And here is some visual history from today's Newe York Times:
80 Years Ago, Nuclear Annihilation Came to Japan. What the world’s only atomic bombings, carried out by Americans, did to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/world/asia/hiroshima-nagasaki-japan-nuclear-photos.html

Here are some of my photos from the Peace Park, the kind you have seen before because everybody takes the same or similar shots...

The next post of the VAoJ Hiroshima Research Trip Arc will be on traditional Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki and the Ekinishi drinking area.

New Book Announcement: Mark Bookman's "Disability Publics: Making Accessibility in Modern Japan"

A personal note: Dr. Mark Bookman was an incredible scholar, the foremost expert on historical and contemporary disability issues in Japan, a wonderful and caring person any my good friend. He was here in Japan doing research and working on his PhD dissertation, all the while writing several articles and making many presentations. He eventually finished his degree, got a post doc at Tokyo College and then a position at Ritsumeikan University. I was very lucky to know him and benefit from his knowlwdge. At times we were able to work together, and he always found the time to watch many of my presentations (and then give me compliments and his frank and honest critiques). This is the book we have all been waiting for...

Book Description (from Oxford University Press):

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. It is free to read on Oxford Academic and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

Over the last 150 years, activists and policymakers have tried to improve access to Japan's built environment, education, employment, entertainment, and medical care systems for disabled persons, but these attempts have frequently excluded as many impaired individuals as they have empowered. Their technological and legislative interventions have not only structured the everyday lives of disabled individuals, but also women, children, old people, migrant laborers, wounded veterans, and members of other vulnerable groups, by both creating and removing obstacles to social participation.

Why and how have stakeholders pursued these accessibility projects for different demographics in modern Japan? To unpack this question, this book investigates the history of Japan's "disability publics": coalitions of activists, government officials, and other interested parties who have advanced policy agendas for specific communities by responding to social, political, and economic circumstances. It demonstrates that pressures tied to macrosocial processes such as industrialization, urbanization, militarization, globalization, and population ageing have played a key role in defining Japan's disability publics. Equally influential have been international flows of information, products, and people working in the welfare sphere, which have inspired Japan's disability publics to implement domestic reforms. A final contributing factor arose from social crises and mega-events (such as the "triple disaster" at Fukushima, the global COVID-19 pandemic and the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics) which have provided windows of opportunity for catalyzing policy changes.

Disability Publics uses this history to intervene in current debates about inclusion and will guide future policymaking efforts by asking stakeholders to consider who has a seat at the table, how they come to be there, and what they fail to imagine when developing accessibility measures. In so doing, and by unravelling the politics of Japan's disability publics in this comprehensive way, the book outlines a path towards a more equitable society.

***

Many of our Japanese Studies colleagues will know Dr Mark Bookman's work on disability in Japan. He was trained as a modern historian, but he had many fruitful collaborations with anthropologists during his career. Over the last year, I have been honored to work with Mark's father and Professor Nagase Osamu of Ritsumeikan University to bring Mark’s UPenn dissertation to publication. Please help us sustain his legacy and buy the book at this discount, or recommend it to your library or … read it for free! OUP has happily agreed to make the manuscript open access after its publication in September 2025. (Carolyne S. Stevens, book editor)

For more information: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/disability-publics-9780198979739?cc=jp&lang=en&

明日から写真展始まります! Photo Exhibition Starts Tomorrow!

Matsuri

「Through Multi-sighted Photographies」

A Photo Exhibition by Lucile Druet and Steven C. Fedorowicz

祭り

「多視点からの写真を通して」

ルシル ドルーエとスティーブン C. フェドロウィツによる写真展

2024 February 10 (Sat) ~ 13 (Tues)

2024年2月10日(土) ~ 13日(火)

11:00 - 18:00

(last day / 最終日は 11:00 - 16:00)

JARFO Art Square

Kyoto, Japan

Gallery Info: https://jarfo.jp/jarfo

Accessibility/barrier-free information: http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2024/02/matsuri-photo-exhibition-accessibility.html

This project is a collaboration that explores Japanese matsuri through the intersections of social science research and visual representation. Fedorowicz’s field sites are autumn danjiri festivals in his own neighborhood in Osaka. His research-based art is long-term, community-based, participatory, reflexive and informed by sensory ethnography and multimodality. Druet’s field sites are Kyoto’s Gion Matsuri and Jidai Matsuri. Her art-based research examines vernacular photography, spectacle, iconicity and the performative presence of the Kyoto geisha as dancers and models. Meshing their visions and what they captured together, the photographers want the images they took in these clearly separate loci to be features in a duo exhibition, juxtaposing 40 photos of the Kyoto and Osaka matsuri they engaged in with their cameras and embodied positions as researchers. The photographers hope that the visitors to this exhibition will participate in the research by supplying ideas and opinions through surveys, interview and informal discussions.

このプロジェクトは、社会科学研究とビジュアル表現の交わり (intersections) を通して日本の祭りを探求する共同プロジェクトである。　フェドロウィツの研究対象は、彼が住む大阪の秋のだんじり祭りで、彼のリサーチに基づくアートは、長期的、地域密着型、参加型、再帰的で、感覚エスノグラフィーとマルチモダリティの影響を受けている。一方、ドルーエの研究対象は、京都で最も祇園祭と時代祭である。彼女の芸術をベースとした研究では、ヴァナキュラー写真、壮観、アイコン性、そして、ダンサー・モデルとしての京都芸者のパフォーマティブな存在について考察している。自分たちのそれぞれのビジョンとカメラで撮影したものを融合させることで、明らかに別々の場所で撮影した写真を、今回の「デュオ展」の目玉として、京都・大阪で撮りためた写真40枚を展示する。来場者にはアンケートやインタビュー、非公式なディスカッションを通じて、アイデアや意見を共有してほしい。

Lucile Druet is Associate Professor of Japanese Arts and Culture at Kansai Gaidai University, Osaka. Her teaching covers literature, painting traditions, theatrical performances, film and Japanese fashion. Interested in the visual and aesthetical intersection of clothing and embodiment, she researches how kimono is practiced nowadays in Kyoto and how it appears in works of fiction and poetry. See more of her photographic work at: https://somosomo.co

Steven C. Fedorowicz is a cultural anthropologist, visual anthropologist and Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Asian Studies Program at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka. He has lived in Japan for over 25 years. His research interests include deaf communities, sign language, religion, ritual, performance, B-kyu gourmet, drinking establishments and ethnographic photography. See more of his work at: https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/

ルシル　ドルーエは、大阪にある関西外国語大学の日本芸術文化准教授。文学、絵画の伝統、演劇、映画、日本のファッション等、多岐にわたって教鞭をとっている。衣服と体現の視覚的、美的交差に興味を持ち、現在京都でどのように着物が着られているのか、小説や詩の中で着物がどのように表現されるのか、研究を重ねている。ドルーエの写真作品は下記のサイトで閲覧可能である: https://somosomo.co

スティーブン C. フェドロウィツは、文化人類学者、ビジュアル人類学者であり、彼もまた大阪にある関西外国語大学留学生別科の准教授でもある。日本に住んで25年、研究テーマは多岐にわたり、ろう者コミュニティ、手話、宗教、儀式、パフォーマンス、B級グルメ、飲み屋、民族写真などが含まれる。フェドロウィツの作品は下記のサイト閲覧可能である: https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/

「Matsuri」 Photo Exhibition Accessibility and Barrier-free Information 「祭り」 写真展 アクセシビリティ・バリアフリーについて

Matsuri

「Through Multi-sighted Photographies」

祭り

「多視点からの写真を通して」

2024 February 10 (Sat) ~ 13 (Tues)

2024年2月10日(土) ~ 13日(火)

11:00 - 18:00

(last day / 最終日は 11:00 - 16:00)

JARFO Art Square

Kyoto, Japan

Gallery Info: https://jarfo.jp/jarfo

See the promo flyer: http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2024/01/matsuri-photo-exhibition.html

English (英語の後に日本語の案内が表示されます):
Where to go, how to get there, and what to expect along the way...

JARFO Art Square
Higashiyama-ku, Furukawachō 545
605-0026 Kyōto

JARFO Art Square is 3 minutes away from the Tozai Line Higashiyama Station and 10 minutes away from the Keihan Sanjo Station.

Kyoto Tozai Line stations are largely accessible and wheelchair-friendly, with elevators, narrow gaps between platform and train, and no height differences at places like restrooms. At Higashiyama Station, take Exit 2. There are elevators and barrier-free restrooms inside the station available near Exit 2.

The gallery is about 3 minutes away from the station. Upon reaching the street level, turn left. Turn left again when you reach the nearby shopping arcade.

After the first intersection, the gallery will be on the right side.

Keihan Sanjo Station has elevators and a barrier-free restroom on the ticket gate level near the central exit (on the Osaka-bound side).

You can transfer to the Tozai Line, but it is also easy to walk or roll (about 10 minutes) to the gallery from Sanjo. Walk/roll south on Sanjo Dori (opposite direction of the bridge) on the right side of the street until you get to the Furukawa shopping arcade.

Turn right into the arcade. After the first intersection, the gallery will be on the right side.

The gallery has a wide entrance and plenty of space inside.

The gallery's restroom is not wheelchair accessible.

The photos will be A3 size color prints.

Available languages: Japanese, Japanese Sign Language (日本手話), English, French

日本語 (English directions are above):
どこに行くか、どうやってそこに行くか、そして途中で何を期待するか...

JARFO Art Square
〒605-0026　
京都府京都市東山区古川町545

JARFO Art Squareは東西線東山駅から3分、京阪三条駅からは10分です。

京都東西線の駅は、エレベーターの設置、ホームと電車の隙間が狭い、トイレの高低差がないなど、バリアフリーで車椅子でも利用しやすい駅となっています。 東山駅2番出口を出てください。 駅構内2番出口付近にエレベーターとバリアフリートイレがあります。

ギャラリーは駅から約3分です。 エレベーターを出たら左折してください。 近くの商店街に出たら、再び左折します。

最初の交差点を過ぎた後、ギャラリーは右側にあります。

京阪三条駅は中央口（大阪方面）付近の改札階にエレベーターとバリアフリートイレがあります。

東西線に乗り換えることもできますが、三条からも徒歩や車椅子（約10分）で行くことができます。 三条通りの右側を古川商店街に向かって南（橋の反対側）に進み、アーケードを右折。

ギャラリーは最初の交差点を過ぎて右側にあります。

ギャラリーは入り口が広く、内部も広々としたスペースがあります。

ギャラリーのトイレは車椅子対応ではありません。

写真はA3サイズのカラープリントとなります。

対応言語：日本語、日本手話、英語、フランス語

"Disability activists push for more inclusive Pride celebrations"

Story by Zoe Christen Jones, June 30, 2021, (CBS News via msn)

Read the whole story: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/disability-activists-push-for-more-inclusive-pride-celebrations/ar-AALAVxG?ocid=mailsignout&li=BBnb7Kz

Not Japan related, but it is an intersection between my recent projects dealing with disability and gastronomy. This is the part I like:

© Provided by CBS News Alexis Hillyard / Credit: Kevin Tuong

Alexis Hillyard, a YouTuber who was born without her left hand, said it's freeing when she's in a space where she and her disability are accepted.

"Accessibility means that people are able to move through and exist in spaces they deserve to be a part of without feeling like they need to change who they are, make themselves smaller and make sacrifices to be able to be in that space," the 39-year-old said. "It's like being able to be and exist in your full self, as you are, without having to change or adapt to the world around you."

On her cooking channel, StumpKitchen, Hillyard explains how her disability is an important tool she uses every day and an integral aspect of her life. She's also deliberate in making her videos as accessible to her viewers as possible.

"I didn't realize before how much I would subconsciously hide my arm or wonder if people were staring or wondering what they were thinking about me or feeling sorry for me," Hillyard said. "It was a beautiful surprise and just an awareness and release of tension you were feeling that you didn't realize that you had."

Asian Studies Conference Japan 2020 in Tokyo Canceled - along with at least one great panel (hope we can do it in the near future...)

This is what we were going to do:

Disability and Accessibility in Japan

Accessibility is more than ensuring the “ability” of people with disabilities to access products, services, structures, and systems. Questioning access in Japan requires unpacking the meaning given to the spaces, networks, and systems by the people that create and utilize them. Accordingly, this panel shifts its focus to the actors involved in Japan’s accessibility: experts, students, educators, and advocates.
The panel begins by analyzing the collaborative mechanisms of accessibility before introducing ethnographies of deaf and hard-of-hearing people to explore positionality in information accessibility. In the first paper, Mark Bookman uses the 1964 and 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo as case studies to illustrate how compliance, coordination, and competition between experts in various fields can make the difference between erecting and dismantling barriers for persons with disabilities. Next, Jennifer M. McGuire sheds light on deaf and hard-of-hearing university students’ emic understandings and usage of reasonable accommodations. McGuire shows how concerns about disability disclosure can pose distinct barriers to information access. Junko Teruyama presents an auto-ethnographic analysis of a non-signer in a team-ethnography of signing deaf and hard-of-hearing schoolteachers. Teruyama illuminates issues of language and information accessibility as well as cultural literacy, which reflect the lived experiences of schoolteachers in a hearing environment. Finally, Steven Fedorowicz’s ethnography of local grassroot deaf groups working to improve sign language interpretation, dissemination of basic and emergency information and understanding of diversity and intersections in representations of deaf identities illustrates how networking, lecture/workshops and media productions are used to advance cultural and personal accessibility.

"Japanese manners videos show how to be a 'really cool' traveler in Japan"

Image and text from Japan Today, 2/5/20.

Japan is currently in the midst of a tourism boom at the moment, with 31.9 million foreign tourists traveling to the country in 2019, breaking the previous record for the seventh year running.

Now with the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics roughly half a year away, tourist numbers are set to swell even further, prompting the Japan Tourism Agency to create a number of etiquette videos to educate travelers on some of the finer points of everyday Japanese life.

Ten videos in total have been released, covering everything from communal bathing to how to ride the trains, with the central theme based around the fact that tourists can be “really cool” by taking care to consider others during their travels.

While the new awareness campaign recalls the “Cool Japan” marketing concept promoted by the government in recent years, it also contains a wealth of useful information for visitors. So how should foreign travelers escape the ire of Japanese locals by being considerate to those around them? ...[T]ake a look at the videos...

Of the ten, I will include three in this post. The first two are about taking photos in public in Japan:

Taking Pictures Part 1



Taking Pictures Part 2



The third one is about public transportation. It gives advice to give up priority seats to pregnant women and senior citizens. But it does not mention disabled people...

Public Transportation



What??? So much for barrier free and accessibility...

The other videos deal with Walking on the Streets, Traditional Buildings, Public Baths and Hotels, Restaurants and Public Spaces. Check them out (if you want) at the source below. And check out the reader comments as well. Some readers have said that perhaps some Japanese people themselves should watch and heed these videos...

Source: https://japantoday.com/category/features/travel/japanese-manners-videos-show-how-to-be-a-'really-cool'-traveller-in-japan