Dirk H.R. Spennemann, associate professor of cultural heritage management at Charles Sturt University in Albury, Australia, took the photographs during his visits to the historical sites around the Pacific region in the past three years.
The exhibit, entitled “Pacific Reminders: Places of Memory and Commemoration,” will be shown to the public until Jan. 15, 2012.
Included are photographs of the remnants of the air command center and other historic structures complete with the gaping holes left by the bombs on Tinian, Runway Able, amphibious tractor, the bomb loading pits, monuments at the Banzai Cliff on Saipan, the Santa Lourdes Catholic Church, the San Francisco de Borja Catholic Church and remnants of the Japanese coastal defense guns on Rota.
Also featured are photographs Spennemann captured at the graves of those who died in Singapore and Malaysia during the war, the memorial and cemetery in Singapore, the Memorial Gate for the British Chinese Zoological and Botanical Gardens in Hong Kong, the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, the War Cemetery in Albury, News South Wales, Japanese guns, rifle cartridges, the U.S. Army base in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, the Hiroshima Gokoku Jinja Shinto Shrine and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in Japan.
“Many sites associated with these events remain as evocative reminders of a violent period: bunkers, runways, guns and shells. At the same locations are the places commemorating the sacrifices brought by all sides of that conflict, not only by the warring parties but also by the untold number of civilians unwillingly caught up in the events,” Spennemann said.
For more of Spennemann’s exhibits and works, e-mail [email protected], or check out http://csusap.csu.edu.au/~dspennem/photography/Photography.html.
