From Pearl Harbor to Indian Country ...
For Kenji Kawano, photographing Navajo World War II heroes has become life’s work

Japanese born photographer Kenji Kawano, 58, first moved to the reservation in 1974 with the purpose of photographing the Navajo. Currently he lives in Window Rock where he continues his work as the official photographer of the Code Talkers as well as other documentary projects. [Photo by Brian Leddy/Independent]

By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Dec. 7, 1941, forever changed the course of the world’s history. The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor continues to have on impact on people’s lives to this day. Sixty-six years after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, spurring America to enter World War II, a display of how Native Americans used their languages in service to the United States military during World Wars I and II is on exhibit from the Smithsonian Institute at the Navajo Nation Museum.

On prominent display as part of the exhibit are the legendary Navajo Code Talkers of the U.S. Marines, including numerous prints by Kenji Kawano.

When the Navajo Code Talkers served in World War II, using the Navajo language to baffle the Japanese and helping to win the war, they had no idea that decades later it would be a Japanese man who would take it upon himself to make their story known to the world.

Kawano, a Japanese photographer who now lives on the Navajo Nation, has been photographing the Navajo Code Talkers for more than 30 years. An honorary Code Talker since 1987, Kawano himself is featured on Navajo artist Sheldon Harvey’s “Tribute to the Navajo Code Talkers and Kenji Kawano” on display alongside the traveling exhibit.

Despite the fact that the Code Talkers were the former enemies of his country, Kawano befriended and formed a strong bond with them through listening to their stories and photographing them. The result was the “Warriors: Navajo Code Talkers” book published in 1990.

“Everything happened before I was born,” he said about World War II. “I think since I came to Navajo land, I learned so many things. I didn’t know about Navajo people, how they live, how their government works. Then I found out about the Code Talkers. I thought this story has to be told.”

He continued, “I think nationality is not important. I’m a photographer.”

Western movie influence
As a young boy in Japan, Kawano’s father Yukio would take him to Western movies where he would see the typical cowboys and Indians action onscreen. Those movies were how Kawano first became aware of the native peoples of America.

In 1991, Kawano was finally able to get his father, the man who introduced him to those western movies, out to Navajoland to see for himself how the Native American people live today.

A former member of Japan’s Navy, Yukio met with Code Talker Carl Gorman during his visit.

“He was happy to meet Mr. Gorman because Mr. and Mrs. Gorman were like my parents here and finally my dad had a chance to say ‘Thank you,’” Kawano said.

In the navy, Yukio had been a torpedo pilot.

“If the war kept going longer, he might have went as a torpedo pilot,” Kawano said.

Kawano has been surrounded by veterans and military people all his life. In addition to his dad serving in the navy, his grandfather served in World War I and his younger brother served in the Japanese Air Force. His brother-in-law is in the Japanese Army and his wife Ruth was in the U.S. Air Force.

Despite being surrounded by military, he said he always wanted to be an artist.

Kawano’s desire to become a photographer started when he graduated high school and went to work for a company in his native Japan as a graphic designer. The company also had photographers on staff and Kawano became interested in their work. He bought a camera and began taking pictures.

From there, he decided that he wanted to become a professional photographer.

Los Angeles start
Kawano said that at that time, it was typical for the many photographers in Japan to travel overseas to establish a portfolio. He decided to head to Los Angeles to search for a subject.

On Nov. 10, 1973, which Kawano notes is the U.S. Marine Corps birthday, he arrived in America and subsequently began taking pictures in downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood.

“I really didn’t enjoy taking pictures in LA,” he said.

One day the owner of an antique shop on Hollywood Boulevard asked him if he knew about the Navajo Indians.

“I said I only knew what I saw in Western movies,” Kawano said.

“When he told me about Navajos, I thought maybe that’s a good idea, to take pictures of Native Americans — how they live today,” he said.

Kawano was so enthusiastic about the prospect that he jumped on a Greyhound bus to Flagstaff, Ariz., right away.

When he arrived in March 1974, it was snowing, much to his surprise.

“In Japan people say Arizona is a warm state,” he said laughing.

Kawano went to the local museum and told the curator about his plan to photograph Navajo people.

“I don’t know how I explained because I didn’t speak English,” he said.

One of the workers knew a Navajo family in Fort Defiance and helped Kawano to make arrangements to stay with the family.

“I tried to take pictures but again, I couldn’t communicate with people, especially in the 1970s. More Navajos spoke Navajo,” he said.

Kawano was able to begin photographing Navajo children because they were curious about what he was doing.

Two months after arriving in Fort Defiance, he took a job as a gas station attendant in Ganado.

“Skoal was only 40 cents. The butane tank was $12. It was just a new experience,” he said. Pumping gas was a new experience for Kawano who never drove in Japan.

“So many times when a driver comes, they think I’m Navajo. They start talking to me in Navajo,” Kawano said with a laugh. “I had a great time.”

It was during his time working at that gas station that he began learning Navajo and English.

Around that time, his parents wrote to him asking when he was coming home. When he left Japan, he had told them he would be back in three months.

“I said, ‘Please wait a little longer, I haven’t accomplished anything yet,’” he said.

It wasn’t until the summer of 1975 that Kawano first met Code Talker Carl Gorman while he was hitchhiking. That day the two went to a squaw dance before Gorman took him back to Ganado. During the time spent together,

Gorman told Kawano about the Navajo Code Talkers and Kawano finally found his subject.

“I wanted to know more about what they did,” he said. He decided to begin documenting the Code Talkers with the hope of one day having a museum exhibit.

In September 1975, Kawano took his first photos of the Code Talkers, one of which is on display at the Navajo Nation Museum right now.

Official photographer
In the years that followed, he married his wife Ruth, became the official photographer for the Navajo Tribe saying “The White House has a photographer, why not the Navajo Nation?” and later worked as a photographer for the Navajo Times.

When turmoil in the tribe shut down the newspaper in 1987, Kawano decided to take the time to work on a book about the Code Talkers. He began seeking out the Code Talkers to take portraits of them.

Kawano spent countless hours driving around the vast Navajo reservation trying to find the Code Talkers.

“Many did not have telephones. It was hard to reach,” he said.

Once he did reach them, he would spend a few hours with them listening to their stories.

“Overall, I really enjoy the Code Talkers — visiting home to home listening to their experiences,” he said. “Sometimes family members, they don’t ask their grandfathers about it.”

He found that most of the Code Talkers were willing to share their stories with him. He said that even though they are getting on in years, they still recall the war vividly.

“Sometimes their memories are getting short but when they start talking about the war, they remember even to the date,” he said.

Kawano noted that some Code Talkers never got to tell their stories, but he wanted to make sure that the story of the Navajo Code Talkers was told.

“I really want American people to know about the Code Talkers. Four hundred young men went to the Marines and used their language,” he said. “I as a photographer use my tool, a camera, to document and to tell their stories.”

The final product had 75 portraits, including three widows. The book was also chosen by the Arizona Commission on the Arts as a traveling exhibit.

Today, because of that book, Kawano is a well known figure around the Navajo Nation and the world. He has had exhibits in Japan more than 50 times.

“So many good things happened because I published ‘Warriors,’ and I just cannot believe it,” he said.

Kawano, who said he now considers Navajo land home, had to buck tradition to leave Japan and live among the Navajo people.

“If you do what you love to do, you can accomplish what you want to do,” he said.

He said he doesn’t know what he would be doing if went back to Japan when his parents asked him.

“Because I didn’t go back, I accomplished some things — publish a book, museum exhibits, many more to come,” he said. “I’m so lucky I came here.”