Marutapura River in Borneo

As a member of the Navy Information Team, Shinsui traveled to Southeast Asia in April 1943. An album of sketches dated to late June seems to have been the basis for a set of three prints published later that year by Watanabe. In his peaceful and idyllic views of the islands of Celebes (today Sulawesi), Java, and Borneo, he entirely ignored the actual situation, omitting any trace of the Japanese occupation, which had begun in the spring of 1942. Before that, these islands were under Dutch control. The Indonesians resented the Dutch, so possibly the Japanese slogan to be “the leader of Asia, the protector of Asia, the light of Asia” might have sounded appealing at first.