In 1972, still in the midst of the Cold War, the island of Okinawa was reincorporated into Japan after 25 years of US military occupation. Although the administration was officially transferred to the Japanese government, bilateral security agreements allowed the military bases to remain, consolidating Okinawa as one of the main US strategic posts in the Pacific region. It is in this context that photographer Mao Ishikawa’s photo book Hot Days in Camp Hansen!! (1975-1977) was born, which was reissued in 2017 under the title Red Flower, The Women of Okinawa.

The images produced by Ishikawa feature two social groups deeply rooted in the Okinawan daily life of the 1970s: US soldiers and the women from the town of Kin, who worked in the bars around Camp Hansen and often had affective and sexual relationships with these men. Refusing an accusatory or exoticizing photojournalistic approach, Ishikawa does not present a denunciation of the history of exploitation perpetrated by the US military. Instead, she reveals a complex network of affection and solidarity between individuals who share common feelings and a common life – low-ranking soldiers, mostly Black and displaced from their country, and Okinawan women in subordinate roles, living in a territory historically marginalized in relation to the Japanese state.

Mao Ishikawa never placed herself as an outside observer of the universe she was portraying. In her own words: “This is not an infiltration report. I didn’t aim to take ‘sneak peek’ photographs from a bystander’s perspective. […] Shooting doesn’t begin until I step into the scene. It’s certainly a documentary and yet my own emotional record as well. That’s why it was important to work at a bar for US soldiers. I intended to become a Kin woman myself.”¹

In tune with the contestatory spirit of Okinawan youth in the 1970s – influenced by international anti-imperialist movements, protests against the Vietnam War, and civil rights struggles in the United States – Ishikawa went beyond the island’s borders and traveled to Philadelphia, where she spent about two months living with her friend Myron Carr, a former soldier. With a radically human gaze, she portrays the context of origin of the men with whom she shared a daily life in Okinawa. Far from the militarized environment, her photos capture scenes of friends and family meeting, children playing, relaxed conversations on the sofa, and walks through the city’s streets.