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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
June 20, 2008
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| June 7, 2008 |
One 250th of a Second – Naomi Toyoda |
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| Many of Mr Toyoda’s most fruitful discussions on Peace Boat took place over a beer at the bar. |
How does a teacher from Tokyo find himself in the heart of humanity, photographing destruction and beauty, pain and happiness, death and life, in order to bring this world one step closer to peace?
Naomi Toyoda started his career as a photographer in the eighties as a part-time job. For the first ten years, he traveled the world to take photos, while on annual leave from his work as an after-school teacher. It was a means to understand politics, culture and violence, not through a window out of Japan, but through the eyes of the world. |
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Though it can’t be certain, this little girl’s leukemia was very likely caused by the depleted uranium used by US forces in Iraq. (Photo courtesy of Naomi Toyoda) |
As his commitments as a teacher began to restrict his travel time, Mr Toyoda made the decision to leave behind his passion for teaching and embrace the power of the media, to give Japanese society what he describes as ‘a cross section of truth taken in one 250th of a second’.
He has since spent his time creating a documentary of moments through the lens of a camera and is now an acclaimed photojournalist in Japan, a champion for abolishing depleted uranium, an advocate for the rights of the Palestinians and a critical voice against Japan’s failure to adhere to the war-renouncing Article 9 of their Constitution.
An experience in 2002 reaffirmed Mr Toyoda’s commitment to photojournalism. Mr Toyoda had photographed a young girl suffering from leukemia in Iraq. When the girl’s grandmother asked him what use the photo of her granddaughter was to her, the blunt contradiction and duty of a photographer struck home. What the girl needed, she said, was the medicines restricted by the economic sanctions, not a photo. |
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Mr Toyoda, PLO Communications Adviser Wassim Khazmo and Peace Boat staff Shige Goda in a Q&A session about the issue of Palestine |
Over the years, the true gravity of the grandmother’s words has resonated through his work. As a result, Mr Toyoda has made it a priority to help the people he photographs. Whether it be getting medical aid from NGOs for the child dying of leukemia, or using his photos to lobby the EU to ban depleted uranium, it's Mr Toyoda’s attempt to fulfill the duties of a journalist and a human being.
For the passengers on Peace Boat’s 62nd Voyage, his lectures and discussion forums between Singapore and Egypt were like being in a boxing ring. Each photo painted a story worth thousands of words that startled the audience and forced them to face the harsh reality outside the cocoon created by the Japanese media.
Mr Toyoda would show a striking close up of white cherry blossom. Once the audience had time to admire its beauty, he would point out that it had seven petals instead of five, a result of genetic mutation caused by the out-of-focus Hamaoka nuclear power plant in the background. |
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He covered the Iraq war, the Palestinian struggle, the use of depleted uranium, the atomic bomb, the Kobe earthquake and the Japanese Self Defense Force in the same way.
According to Mr Toyoda, the Japanese media has failed to educate and inform the people of Japan. He believes a reason for this is its support for the United States Government and the US-Japan Security Treaty, a definite step away from de-militarization.
When asked what his biggest challenge as a Journalist is, he says it is breaking through the nationalistic psyche of the Japanese people. He says photos of death and destruction do reach their heart, but that same heart won’t accept that Japan holds a part of the blame.
However, this is a challenge he is willing to fight, to help shape, educate, create and bring justice to humanity through the power of words and the 250th second of truth. |
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