Okinawa;Japan

Scope and Contents

Description provided by photographer Roy Simonson reads: "A thicket of pandanus trees along the banks of the stream that empties into the head of Shana Wan, Okinawa. The mountain slopes in the distance consist of Lithosols from phyllites and sandstones and support poor forest."

Scope and Contents

Description provided by photographer Roy Simonson reads: "Tilled patches of sweet potatoes on Brown Forest soil among limestone pinnacles not far from Hamasaki, Motobu peninsula."

Scope and Contents

Description provided by photographer Roy Simonson reads: "Two very simple Okinawan tombs cut into the soft coralline limestone in a cut along a road built by Americans, now abandoned. Cans before tombs hold withered flowers."

Scope and Contents

Description provided by photographer Roy Simonson reads: "Small raised beach below limestone plateau at the south tip, almost southeast tip, of Okinawa with the Philippine Sea beyond the coral reef to the left. The raised beach is largely in rice, now fully headed and ripening, whereas the upland slope is in grass, brush, and some patches of sweet potatoes. Cycads are growing on the nearby slump blocks of limestone."

Scope and Contents Vista from northern Okinawan mountain slopes along a valley with a stream that runs into Shana Wan. Description provided by photographer Roy Simonson reads: "Mountains where the valley narrows above the site of H3, as seen from the same point. The slopes of 60 to 75 percent are Lithosols from phyllites and sandstones, all in forest of poor quality except for the new terraces being built in the left foreground. Alluvial soils in the valley are largely in sweet potatoes, with a few coarse...