In 1982, Mao Ishikawa released her first book of photographs. The backlash was swift and brutal. Titled Hot Days in Camp Hansen, the photos captured the relationships between female Japanese bar workers and African-American G.I.s. The public response was deeply critical, Ishikawa was forced to remove the most sensitive images from the book, and it brought an end to her marriage. One year later, at 30, Ishikawa opened an izakaya (informal bar) to support herself and her daughter. Instead of women, she began photographing the fishermen and dock workers who came in from the nearby shipping ports of Naha. Honest, vulnerable, and bold, Ishikawa’s images earned her the moniker “the Nan Goldin of Japan.” More than 60 photographs from her five-decade career are on view in a new retrospective. —Paulina Prosnitz