Finds commonality and critique in Shintoism and tourism in their ritualized behaviours, “right” order of doing things, and their performative role as superficial markers of being a “better” person. The paradox of difference through conformity; doing the same things, taking photos of the same things etc. Dutiful pilgrimages to Hiroshima memorials with de rigeur solemn gasps at the horrors of war by local and foreign tourists, perpetuates Japanese gaslighting their aggression for victimhood, cutting off critical reflection and responsibility on the mass suffering the Japanese had caused which led to the war. Look, I Bled, a Japanese Flag collides two memorials: the Hiroshima memorial and Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo which deifies war criminals responsible for 30 million deaths, yet are revered as gods and heros, despite being the root cause of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. To this date, Japan has neither apologized nor made reparations for its WWII crimes against humanity, nor received sanctions from the West. Yet it is visited by millions of Western tourists who marvel and fetishize it and weep at the ‘tragedy’ of atomic bomb memorials.
Using tourist walkabouts as the form, footage of the memorials are augmented with commentary revealing the truth beneath the superficial veneer. The walkabout of Yasukuni (gaslit-termed “Peace Nation”) Shrine was performed on 31 October, coinciding with the last week of October when Japan holds its annual military celebrations and parades. Horrific images of Japanese massacres set to Stephen’s rendition of Purcell’s “What Power Art Thou” as he walks around the shrine. The facade of peace of the shrine’s garden are disrupted when crimes against humanity committed by the enshrined war criminals are exposed with onmyōji seals constructed from composite (new) Kanji characters, whose shape and constituent Katakana syllables evoke and describe the various atrocities.
Photography inside Yasukuni shrine is restricted, with security guards posted around the enclosure. Nevertheless, Stephen clandestinely captured footage of him making his transgressive wish on an ema plaque – where prayers and wishes are inscribed to be collected and ceremonially burnt to send them to the gods.
The walkabout for Hiroshima Peace Memorial was performed on Nov 05 which coincides with the date Franklin Roosevelt became the first US president elected to a third term, and who initiated the development of the first aromic bomb. Exposing the pretentiousness of the memorial and its visitors, how rebranding and historical revisionism enabled Japan to play the victim and distract from Japan’s Crimes Against Humanity, and sweeps their victims under the rug by centering and fetishizing discourse on Japanese as the penultimate victims of WWII. Stephen rewrites the final hallelujah section of Purcell’s Evening Hymn (“Now that the Sun”) to evoke the prayers of the Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs etc. murdered by the Japanese and exposes the sham of Japan’s performative victimhood. Where are the peace parks and visitors for the victims of the Japanese – they were murdered in a more brutal manner than an atomic bomb, on a vastly larger magnitude?
