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There are places in the world that we must not forget. And yet we have forgotten those places.

The Ogasawara Islands lie in the Pacific Ocean approximately 1,000 kilometers south of Tokyo. On Chichijima, one of the islands, a mountain was gouged out and coated with concrete that hardened to form a bunker. There are three openings, two of which are connected by tunnels. This place was never to be known that had been closed off for many years-it was a place that should not be known. A place that was forcibly meant to be forgotten by both time and history.

Photographer Shinichiro Nagasawa spent 13 years beginning in 2008 making numerous trips to the Ogasawara Islands. The one-way trip by boat from Tokyo takes 24 hours over rough seas to reach the islands. He photographed the way of life of the island's indigenous Bonin Islanders, their portraits, and the island's nature and landscapes. These were later published in the photobook The Bonin Islanders. He included old photographs throughout the photobook and interspersed scenery from the past with scenes of everyday life in the present. Turning the pages of the photobook, we are drawn in by the tranquil natural landscapes of the island, both beautiful and rugged, cut from the fabric of time. The collection of photographs is also a record of materials gathered periodically by a cultural anthropologist during fieldwork, as well as a story filled with literary emotion. However, there are unpublished photos that were not included in that photobook. These are compiled in this collection, Mary Had a Little Lamb. At the beginning of the book, Nagasawa states, "A nuclear warhead named Mary's Lamb was deployed on Chichijima under U.S. military occupation."

Mary Had a Little Lamb is an American nursery rhyme written in the 19th century. It's a story about a little girl named Mary who has a pet lamb that is very attached to her. One day, her brother encourages Mary to bring the lamb to school. The sudden appearance of the lamb at school causes a commotion among the students. The students panic because Mary broke the rules by bringing the lamb to school where animals are not usually allowed. The nursery rhyme includes a line about the students wondering, "Why does the lamb love Mary so much?" Something that was wasn't supposed be there was there. The name almost seems to be metaphorically intended.