A throng moves along a cobblestone street. Everyone’s gaze is directed at a young woman with a shaved head clutching a baby.
Perhaps most people have seen this scene at least once. It is from a photograph taken in a French town, immediately after the withdrawal of German forces in the final months of World War II.
The woman, accused of being a Nazi collaborator, was paraded around town and sneered at. Were the jeers those of loathing, or of glee?
It is amazing how accurately a sneer can project the darkness in the human heart. The photographer was Robert Capa (1913-1954), arguably the most celebrated photojournalist of the 20th century.
As a combat photographer, he captured the tense realities of battlefields, including the historic D-Day landing in Normandy. He also took numerous pictures of wartime citizens.
Quite a number of his works convey the ugliness and irrationality of war in an oblique yet forceful manner. I believe one example is the above-mentioned photo of the young woman with her shaved head.
Author Kotaro Sawaki notes in his book “Capa e no Tsuiso” (Chasing Capa): “This single picture contains this incisive question: On which side does justice lie?”
He elaborates, “Are the residents of this town ‘right,’ or is it this young woman, being paraded around town, who is ‘right’?”
Sadly, brutal genocide continues to go unchecked in our world. Why can’t humans stop fighting? In Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and so on?
In every warzone, blood flows copiously in the name of justice.
Capa was a 40-year-old war correspondent when he stepped on a landmine that killed him in Indochina. It happened on May 25, exactly 70 years ago.
He famously said once, “I hope to stay unemployed as a war photographer till the end of my life.”
--The Asahi Shimbun, May 25
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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.
VOX POPULI: Remembering Robert Capa on 70th anniversary of his death
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25.05.2024
A throng moves along a cobblestone street. Everyone’s gaze is directed at a young woman with a shaved head clutching a baby.
Perhaps most people have seen this scene at least once. It is from a photograph taken in a French town, immediately after the withdrawal of German forces in the final months of World War II.
The woman, accused of being a Nazi collaborator, was paraded around town and sneered at. Were the jeers those of loathing, or of glee?
It is amazing how accurately a sneer can project the darkness in the........
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