Why did I become interested in warships? Listening to my grandfather, who went to war, my grandmother, who experienced bombings in the homeland, and my father talking about the last sortie of the Yamato, had a great effect on me in my childhood. I always liked to draw, and from that time I would redraw a ship or an aircraft from a photo or the cover art of a plastic model box. I started doing pencil portraits of warships seven years ago. I suddenly began to feel nostalgic, and drew the battleship Settsu. From then on, I drew many works, and received offers to exhibit and produce more works. Thanks to these exhibitions, my work also appeared on a paper lantern in the Yasukuni Shrine Mitama Matsuri festival. In this way, many more people are becoming aware of my pencil portrait work. I am particularly grateful that at exhibitions and memorial services for the spirits of fallen crew members, many former crew members could view these works, and that I have had the opportunity to meet them. To hear people who were actually there speak, you can feel their emotion of what it was like to be on a ship at that time. I feel that it is not enough to simply draw the ship itself. You must also include the hundreds, no, thousands of crew members who were on these ships. That is where I came up with the idea to dedicate my works to shrines with a connection to the ships. In the dedicated portraits, not only is the ship depicted, but also the crew members. On the warship plowing through the waves, you can see the tiny figures of the crew. This portrays the men who journeyed far to risk their lives in the protection of their homeland. When these works are exhibited in memory to honor those who perished in the war, those that made the ultimate sacrifice in this manner, to show these works to family members and others, I feel a strong sense of mission and pride. At this time, opportunities to meet those who actually experienced the war are becoming fewer. However, through these portraits, we can always understand what those who experienced war went through. This is a source of deep pride for me. That my pencil works in the exhibition at Yasukuni Shrine (held from June 1 to August 31, Heisei 29 (2017)) and this art book can provide a bridge to that awful time more than 70 years ago, and the travails of those ancestors who have passed the baton of life on to us, gives me immense pleasure.