Exhibiting war, arts to commemorate end of WWII

Exhibiting war, arts to commemorate end of WWII

This article is based on an interview with Dadang Christanto, the only Indonesian artist to participate in the Asian Peace, Artwar and Art '95 exhibition held in Osaka, Japan. The exhibition opened on Oct. 8 and closes on Dec. 17.

Text by R. Fadjri photos by Dadang Christanto

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Fifty years after the end of World War II, Asians are still suffering the aftermath of the Japanese occupation. They still feel how the war diminished humanity. Thousands of comfort women, used by the Japanese armed forces on the Korean Peninsula, in the Philippines and in Indonesia, are now in the twilight of their years and are forgotten amidst Japan's prosperity. Thousands of Indonesian romusha (forced laborers) who survived the cruelties of the Japanese armed forces in Burma (Myanmar), still have a bitter aftertaste from the inhuman experiences of the war.

On the other side of the coin, anti-war sentiment has been born in Japan, 50 years after the war ended. Chauvinist Japanese elders are now being replaced by nationalists who lean towards a universal humanism which knows no boundaries. Japan's younger generation also criticizes Japan's neo-imperialism of economic domination.

The ongoing exhibition of Asian Peace, Artwar and Art '95 which opened in the Osaka International Peace Center on Oct. 8, is being held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. It grouped 20 artists from Japan and one from Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, China and Korea, all the regions occupied by the Dai Nippon.

The exhibition hopes to reflect Asian artists' view on war and how they see the present world situation, explained Professor Ichiro Haru of Wako University, which organized the exhibit.

The anti-war spirit is clearly felt in the exhibition, which in fact echoes the aim of the Osaka International Peace Center established in 1991. The founders of the center wanted to remind the Japanese about the importance of peace, while educating the young about second world war history and the other wars in which Japan was involved. They also like to provide Japan's younger generation with the opportunity to reflect upon the destruction war brings. The objectives chosen by the center were further extended into managing the International Peace Museum, which stores documents related to Japan's suffering during the war, and that of other Asian nations treated cruelly by the Japanese military.

Medium

Artists are free to use any medium in the exhibit, from the conventional arts to mixed media and the performing arts. Most works develop symbols of war's cruelty and its inevitable results. The artists are trapped into featuring symbols of death, dehumanization and cruelty.

A Filipina artist projected the idea of death as a coffin. Lee Kyong Shin, a Korean artist, interpreted Korean women's sufferings as a brown wall decoration of a skirt, the female uniform at the time. Lee Kyong Shin sketched the body of a woman in listless lines above the skirt as a reminder of the bleak future Korean comfort women faced. The work bears the title The Night of A Comfort Woman Full of Pain.

War naturally brings physical destruction. But, more than that, war degrades human values to near bestial levels. Threats, being in the shadow of fear, or hunger, brings out the animal in men. The drive for self-perseverance proves stronger than the call of humanity.

Tang Dawu, 53, projected, with the aid of performing arts, how difficult life was during the Japanese occupation of Singapore. The work, called Tapioca Friendship, revealed that Singaporeans, because of the scarcity of rice, were forced to consume anything they could get their hands on. The London-based artist cooked cassava, once a substitute for rice in Singapore, and then distributed it to viewers who were mainly elderly Japanese.

"Fifty years after WW II made me realize that we spring from the same roots, now that we're eating cassava together," said Tang Dawu while enjoying a piece of cooked cassava.

Dadang Christanto, 38, from Indonesia, drew attention to the violence during the Japanese occupation with his work entitled The Suppressed. His work is a reminder to people about the cruel treatment the romusha experienced. Provided with scant jute clothes, they were forced to construct bridges or railroads in Burma. Dadang pinned 17 terra cotta heads on the wall, each clad in jute clothing.

To a postwar generation, jute sacks may not mean anything, but to people who survived the ordeal of the Japanese occupation, jute sacks trigger a sharp shooting pain inside.

Even through the conventional medium, Gou Pei Yu's work of art entitled Nanjing Massacre, could not diminish the cruelties inflicted by the Japanese army in China. The artist, who is of Chinese origin and lives in Tokyo, has drawn fragmented black and brown shaded scenes of the Japanese army's cruelties. The picture depicts a Japanese soldier with an elongated tongue wagging towards the dead bodies lying around him.

Japanese artists view the past and presence with a very critical eye. Their work is an expression of unleashed self- criticism on the nation which once ruled the Indonesian archipelago with an army and now rules it through trade.

Arai, 28, accuses his country for manipulating historical facts and spreading misinformation about the suppression of other Asian nations -- Japanese school history books describe the Japanese armies occupying China and Korea as liberators.

The Tokyo-born artist expressed his objection by stripping until he stood, quite naked, upside down, against the wall with his head resting on a bundle of history books filled with manipulated facts.

While the artist stripped, slides of what seemed like life in Tanzania flashed up on the wall. When the show came to an end, he flipped over onto the misleading history books. The show resumed a little later with contrasting pictures of Japan. One of the pictures of modern Japanese life was of the late Emperor Hirohito which appeared simultaneously with Arai's naked body.

This anti-nationalist feeling was also expressed by Yoko Higuchi, 25, who pasted stickers resembling the Japanese flag on the landing of a staircase. People ascending the stairs could not avoid treading on the Japanese flag. The Japanese, without a care in the world, stepped on their own flag. This could not happen in Indonesia.

Criticism of post-war Japan's prosperity was portrayed by another Japanese artist as the result of Yendaka (yen appreciation).

Clad in an evening suit, a white shirt and black trousers -- to portray Japan's middle class -- the artist stood on a red square cloth. In front of him stood two pails, one filled with water and coins, the other empty. Suddenly, he lifted the coins and water filled pail over his head and poured the contents over his body. The cynicism portrayed by this performance reminded viewers of the greedy McDuck, Walt Disney's version of a tycoon who likes to swim in an ocean of money.

The exhibition Asian Peace, Artwar and Art '95 pushes visitors to remember the degradation of human values in past and present wars. The birth of neo-colonialism has given rise to economic wars and new oppressions.