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Kawano captures Navajo Codetalkers on filmWINDOW ROCK - It is likely that during World War II, the Navajo Codetalkers never dreamed a Japanese would one day move to the Navajo Nation and capture their portraits on film.Kenji Kawano's A Portrait, The Navajo Codetalkers/' offers glimpses at the home of the Navajos who serve as front-line radio operators and communicated in a complex code never broken by the Japanese.Thirty-five portraits of Navajo Codetalkers - showing their humor, their wives and their medals - are featured in the show which opens May 6 at the Gallup Public Library . and continues through May 31. The Navajo Codetalkers and the public are invited to the May 6 opening from 4 to 7 p.m.The -Navajo Marines, whose unique contribution remained a secret until 1 968, are photographed before hogans and corrals with memoirs of the service that has brought them dignity.Now 44 years after World War II, Kawano says he is learning a great deal from the Navajos who used their own language to communicate military messages in code.Their shoes are always shined, their pants always pressed/' Kawano said of the Codetalkers. Some were only 15 or 16 when they twent to war, many had no idea what it meant, that they may be killed.during their travels, they also remembered the code word for the Japanese, 'The Slanted Eye People, Kawano said with a smile. But adds, the war is history.'They don't talk to me as a former enemy. Really, there's no hard feelings, said Kenji. Some of the men, such as Teddy Draper of Chinle, studied Japanese and still speak it.Bom in Fukuoka in southern Japan, Kawano moved' to Gotemba City, 80 miles southwest of Tokyo, with his family at the age of eight. Education is very difficult in Japan, exams all the time, and it's very competitive, he said.Before leaving Japan for America, Kawano began photographing a Black family from the states on a military base in his native country.While visiting the Navajo Nation in 1974, he lived with Navajo families in Fort Defiance and Ganado, where he met Ruth Williams, of Steamboat in 1976, whom he later married.I didn't speak any English or any Navaio. Everyday was so exciting, I hitch-hiked. Hitchhiking was great, a good practice for English/' Kenji said of his early days on the reservation.Kawano, now married and the father of Japanese-Navajo daughter Sakura, 6, whose name means Cheriy Blossom, said he takes a different approach to photoeraphine Navaios thanjust start taking pictures.Carl Gorman, the father of world-reknown artist R.C. Gorman, was the first Navajo Codetalker Kawano met while hitch-hiking. Gorman, one of the original 29 Navajo Codetalkers, began their long friendship by saying he liked Japanese fooa.Kawano says he dreams of taking the Codetalkers back to Okinawa, Iwo Jima or Nagasaki with him someday to visit. He also hopes the Navajo Tribe will build a museum in Window Rock to honor all of the Navajo warriors.photographer, Kawano plans to produce a bobk on the Codetalkers and hopes those he has n6t yet reached will contact him at (602) 871-2074.Kawano served as a photographer for the Navajo Nation from 1981-83 and as a photographer for the Navajo Times TODAY from 1984-87. His photos have appeared in Newsweek, Popular Photograph}/, USA Toaay, The Columbia Journal, and in publications in Germany, Australia, and England. In 1986, he traveled through Scotland to photograph scenes for a Japanese publication.Now a freelance
Newspaper Details
Navajo Times
Window Rock, Arizona, US
Thu, Apr 27, 1989
Page 10
Full Page
Clipped by
Canton S.
OK, USA 06 Nov 2019
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