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In the wake of the deadliest battle of the Pacific War, Okinawa was placed under American military occupation. With their land and communities devastated, Okinawans relied on the Americans for their very survival; herein began a complex and ambivalent relationship between the Okinawans and Americans.

Little was done to revive the local economy in these early years, except for one fateful act: in 1945, the U.S. military established the Arts and Monuments Department, part of a strategy to sever Okinawan ties with Japan by promoting a distinct Okinawan cultural identity. Okinawan artists were gathered in Higaonna, Ishikawa to perform in cultural exhibitions and display their traditional crafts. The fine artists among them, often at the request of military personnel, painted portraits, local landscapes and scenes from Okinawans’ daily lives. These works, including smaller paintings that were marketed as Christmas cards, were sold to Americans—sustaining both art and life. As the region changed in the early postwar years, so did the U.S. occupier’s strategies. The Arts and Monuments Department was dissolved in 1948, leaving these artists unemployed. Several moved to Nishimui, near the ruins of Shuri Castle, where they
constructed their own studios and homes. They called themselves the Nishimui Artist Society.

In that same year, a group of military physicians, among them Stanley Steinberg, Walter Abelmann, and George Bedell, happened upon the colony. Hungry for culture and community in a ravaged country, they began painting with these Okinawan artists, in particular, Masayoshi Adaniya, Kanemasa Ashimine, and Seikichi Tamanaha. They introduced these artists to other physicians, who bought and commissioned art in exchange for cartons of Lucky Strike cigarettes—the favored currency of the day between the Okinawans and Americans. The distinction
between occupied and occupier was left unspoken as a deep friendship and camaraderie developed between the artists.

Painting to Live, as told by Stanley Steinberg, is an intimate collection of art and photographs of these Americans and Okinawans connecting with their collective humanity through art.