The limpid and illusory simplicity of José Watanabe (1946-2007), one of Peru's most revered poets, quietly pervades the poet's seven original volumes of poetry. An author of children’s books and adaptive screenplays, Watanabe is also a contributor to La memoria del ojo: cien años de presencia japonesa en el Perú (Memory of the Eye: A Hundred Years of Japanese Presence in Peru, 1999), a “photographic history” that attests to the World War II relocations of nearly 2000 Japanese Peruvians to U.S. internment camps. His rendition of Antigona (Yuyachkani & Comisión de Derechos Humanos, 2000), deploys the classic to honor those who disappeared amidst the traumatic violence of Peru’s recent decades.