Asahi Camera
Tōmatsu first went to Okinawa to photograph the American bases under the auspices of "Asahi Camera" in 1969. The images he captured formed the book "Okinawa, Okinawa Okinawa" which served as an explicit critique of the American air force. On the cover, an anti-base slogan verbalizing his disdain with the overwhelming U.S. presence in Okinawa reads: (The bases are not in Okinawa; Okinawa is in the bases). This sentiment was foreshadowed in Tōmatsu's earlier writings, like his 1964 essay for "Camera Manichi" in which he stated "it would not be strange to call [Japan] the State of Japan in the United States of America. That's how far America has penetrated inside Japan, how deeply it has plumbed our daily lives."