Mary Had a Little Lamb
Shinichiro NagasawaPublisher: Akaaka Art Publishing
- Size
- 224 × 343 mm
- Pages
- 112 pages
- Binding
- Softcover in slipcase
- Language
- Japanese / English
- Published
- 2024
- ISBN
- 978-4-86541-193-5
Mary Had a Little Lamb is a photobook by Shinichiro Nagasawa about the hidden postwar history of the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands. It follows his previous book, The Bonin Islanders (2021). Published by Akaaka Art Publishing in 2024.
The story behind the book
Nagasawa has visited Ogasawara since 2008. As he grew closer to the islanders, he turned to the traces of the US military occupation from 1945 to 1968. The book opens with the words: "Under US occupation, a nuclear warhead named Mary Had a Little Lamb was deployed on Chichijima."
His camera walks deep into a bunker in the mountains, where another chamber painted white appears. Behind a heavy, corroded steel door are walls and ceilings covered in copper plate, with a few fittings and a chair left behind. The photographs of a room where a weapon that "should not exist" once stood carry an overwhelming weight of lost time. Between them, the bright sea of Ogasawara appears without warning.
What is in the book
- Photographs of the bunkers of Chichijima and the sea around the islands
- 112 pages, softcover in a slipcase; text in Japanese and English
About Shinichiro Nagasawa
Born in 1977 in Tokyo, Nagasawa trained under photographer Tamotsu Fujii and became independent in 2006. He began photographing Chichijima in 2008. The Bonin Islanders was shown at Nikon Salon, T3 PHOTO FESTIVAL TOKYO and the Prix Pictet Japan Award exhibition at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum.
