Culture

In Pictures: The Troubles through the lens of a Japanese war photographer

Akihiko Okamura’s work during the conflict in the North from 1960s through to 1980s is on display to public in a new exhibition

Street memorial on Lecky Road, Derry city, marking the site where Desmond Beattie (19) was shot and killed on July 8th, 1971, by the British army. Seamus Cusack (28) was shot dead near this spot about 12 hours later. They were the first people shot dead by the British army in Derry. Photograph: Estate of Akihiko Okamura
Glen Murphy's picture
Glen Murphy
Thu Apr 11 2024 - 18:15

A new exhibition charting a Japanese war photographer’s work in Northern Ireland during the Troubles is opening in Dublin .

Akihiko Okamura came to Ireland in the late 1960s to visit before moving here in 1969. He continually photographed the conflict in the North, generating a collection of work that has been largely unseen to date.

Akihiko Okamura ‘The Memories of Others’, a new Exhibition at Photo Museum Ireland features the work of a Japanese photographer who moved to Ireland in 1969. Video: Bryan O'Brien

The Memories of Others exhibition, which opens on Thursday, consists of Okamura’s photographs, a documentary film and the first publication of his work in Ireland.

Okamura, who was a photographer during the Vietnam War and prisoner of the Vietcong for 53 days, captured a range of day-to-day snapshots of life in Ireland during the Troubles until his death in 1985.

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The exhibition runs at Photo Museum Ireland in Temple Bar until July 6th.

A photograph by Akihiko Okamura, as featured in The Memories of Others exhibition.
A burning building in Derry city circa 1969.
One of the Ring of Steel checkpoints in Belfast city centre in the 1970s.
A man waits on a railway platform in Antrim train in the 1970s.
Fountain Street, Derry circa 1969.
Men work on the preparations for the Twelfth of July celebrations in the Fountain area of Derry in 1969.
Local women stand near their burned out homes on Bombay Street, west Belfast in 1969.
British soldiers in riot gear during a protest on the Creggan estate in Derry city in 1970.
A British soldier carrys a door along Bombay Street, west Belfast in 1969.
British soldiers res at a wall on Divis Street, west Belfast around 1969.
Women pass through a British army barricade about 1969.
A woman stands at a British army barricade on King Street in Belfast around 1970.
A man with an injured foot reads The Dogs of War by Frederick Forsythe on a train in Northern Ireland in 1976.
A young bandmember at a Twelfth of July parade in Derry around 1969.
Children prepare an effigy of Lieut Col Robert Lundy in Derry in the 1970s.
Footsteps in the snow on a railway overbridge in Antrim in the 1970s.
A family in Heuston station, Dublin, circa 1969.
Emptied milk bottles and rocks ahead of riots in Rossville Flats in the Bogside area of Derry city, circa 1969.
Railway overbridge, Antrim, in the 1970s.
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