Kono chijo ni wareware no kuni ha nai

Collective
Kono chijo ni wareware no kuni ha nai

Photographs: Divers photographes

Publisher: All Japan Student's Photo Association

88 pages

Year: 1970

Price: 1200 €

Comments: Softcover, 210 x 148 mm. First edition, 1970. Printed in B&N. mentioned in the Parr&Badger vol 3.

The "All Japan Students' Photo Association" was founded in 1952 yet it is during the sixties that the group became very active politically. Supported by professionnal photographers such as Shomei Tomatsu and Kikuyi Kawada, these students created an impressive and anthological photographic act, Jokyo (Circonstances) and worked very hard to publish their productions, though some of their photobooks were not all about protests and strikes.

Kon chijo ni wareware no kuni ha nai was published by the Committee against pollution and Hiroshima, Hiroshima by the Committee for Hiroshima's Day. This latest photobook reflects the students' vision on a subject which at the time continued to cause grief to the Japanese even 25 years after the disaster. The photobook shows some documents dated from the bomb explosion but also of Hiroshima in 1970. The spooky and grainy pictures reveal how anger and pain were still tangible.

Kon chijo ni wareware no kuni wa nai has to be related also to other forms of protests, from the economical development in the country to the unbridled capitalism causing important social issues. The graphical pictures show factories, smoking chimneys, pollution, nuclear waste,... Several pages focused on the Minamata disease caused by ingesting mercury following the contamination of the water supply in Minamata by the Chisso Corporation.