80 Years of Occupation

A Photographic Conversation Across the Pacific Theater

Research Project (Summer 2024)
80 Years of Occupation
A Photographic Conversation across the Pacific Theater

Location(s)
Iejima & Okinawa, Japan
Saipan & Tinian, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
Guam, U.S. Territory


Funding
Engaged Student Grant, Summer 2024
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University

Advisor
Don Tontiplaphol, PhD
Associate Director of Academic Ventures & Engagement, Radcliffe Institute
Lecturer, Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Project OverviewThis project began as a re-photographic study of U.S. territories in the Pacific, focusing on archival imagery taken by U.S. soldiers during the Pacific Theater as a basis for comparison. My goal was to illustrate how 80 years of continued military occupation and climate change have impacted these landscapes.

Many of the photos I shot were taken on a refurbished Kodak Medalist. At war with Japan and Germany, there weren’t many U.S.-based camera companies creating the same quality of camera as the Axis powers. Debuted in 1941, most Medalists never made it to the commercial market, as they were bought up and distributed across the Armed Forces. 

I was lucky to be able to search through a variety of repositories to find archival imagery, including:
Okinawa Prefectural Archives︎︎︎ 
Northern Marianas College Archives︎︎︎
University of Guam Micronesia Area Research Center (MARC)︎︎︎
University of Hawai’i at Manoa Ryukyu/Okinawa Collection︎︎︎ and more.