For well over four decades, Mao Ishikawa has documented life on the margins of Okinawa, where she was born, as well as those whose presence on the Japanese island has caused great social tension. Some of her early works explored the lives of local bar hostesses on Okinawa and their relationships with Black American soldiers stationed there, which eventually led her to the United States to photograph the series Life in Philly (1986), continuing a process in which she immerses herself in her local environment. Ishikawa’s work has grown increasingly political over time, culminating in her series The Great Ryukyu Photo Scroll (2014– ), hundreds of images, both staged and unstaged, that sharply critique the longstanding US military presence in Okinawa and the complicity of the Japanese government. For a wide-ranging article, Johanna Bear speaks to Ishikawa about national identity, the act of reconstruction, gaining the trust of one’s subject, and the use of satire and pop cultural references to uncover stories that are often neglected.