From the Tang age to the Yamato age, from the Yamato age to the American age, a line of the singer Rinsho Kadekaru that conveys love for the Okinawan people, who kept their pride in a small group of islands whoever controlled it, and at the same time ironic commentary on Okinawan society. The islands have constantly been victims of people's greed and sorrow, which is why so many dreams are tied to these rich, peaceful tropical islands and why they are full of chaos born of uncontrollable greed. For the photographer's generation this was simply a given, and nobody around him could say how to break free of it. Ishikawa sees a history of conflicts and invasions as a basic human problem, and writes of coping with unresolved frustration and waiting for extraordinary moments, of the phrase nan kurunai saa (it will all work out) from a time of hunger, and now an excessive vigor for life that distorts its original form. From a plateau the landscape is chunks of concrete and iron stuck in the ground like tattoos and piercings, and signs on vacant lots read For Sale. In his postscript he argues for being in sync with the wild nature one feels, for life without meaning other than living, and for facing the present moment by discarding accumulated experience and concepts as far as possible.