Browse Items (24 total)
- Collection: Weeks 2-5: Art, Empire and War (1930-1945)
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Sacred Soldier to the Rescue
Unlike Fujita's other action-packed war paintings, this one is more tranquil. It shows a Japanese soldier entering the house of a luxurious Dutch-owned house in Indonesia, whose owners have tied up their black servant and abandoned her while they…
Hunger and Thirst
Compared to Miyamoto's many war paintings, Hunger and Thirst is special in many ways. First, it wasn't commissioned by the military nor is it based on any specific military event or photograph. Miyamoto's conception for this painting came purely from…
Captives
Sketches of Australian Prisoners-of-War by Miyamoto Saburo when he visited Singapore during World War 2. Even though Miyamoto is aware that these Westerners are Japan's enemies, he still admired the physical characteristics of these caucasian men. He…
Attack on Nanyuan, Beijing
A painting by Miyamoto depicting the Japanese attack on Beijing during World War 2. The pose of the soldier raising his rifle and flag is modeled after Lady Liberty in Eugene Delacroix's 1830 painting "Liberty Leading the People", demonstrating how…
Fierce Fighting on Guadalcanal
A painting that depicts the bloody battle between Japanese and American troops during the Guadalcanal campaign. Fujita captures the chaotic and terrifying atmosphere of the battle with the distorted bodies being nearly indistinguishable from the…
Refugees
"Refugees" is a life-sized scroll that portrays the suffering of Chinese denizens during the Sino-Japanese war. It came out near the end of the war in 1943, and is an artistic plea for a ceasefire between China and Japan. One of Jiang's best skills…
Mother and Child ( black and white reproduction)
A painting that was displayed along with "Good Day" at the Futen exhibitions. Just like Good Day, it features Lin's wife and child, and promotes nationalistic ideal of womanhood.
Capturing a View
This painting was completed one year after Japan has started its full-scale invasion against China. Despite the innocuous looking image of a girl with a camera, the painting has subtle nationalistic messages. The camera conveys a message about…
Morning Coolness
A depiction of Lin's future wife in a Kimono next to two goats, in front of a wall of morning glories. This work was accepted by the Shin Bunten exhibition.
Good Day
The artist painted his own wife and daughter in this painting. It conveys the ideological theme of "good wife, wise mother (良妻賢母, Ryōsai Kenbo), which was propagated across Japan and its colonies from the 19th to 20th century.