From the time Spain declared the severance of diplomatic relations on April 11, 1945, he was unable to freely pursue personal activities until his departure in January the following year, and sent 368 works out of his collection to Japan on 6 separate occasions. The rest of the works he had collected remained in Spain, but there is not much information about their whereabouts. What is recorded is that he entrusted the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs with 319 works on January 18, and the records make it clear that immediately before his return to Japan, 189 of those were sold to his friend Luis Nieto Antúnez.
Among the works entrusted to the Spanish government, 107 pieces were returned in 1964, and 6 years later, a Masterpieces of Spanish Art exhibition was held, with the Suma Collection playing a central part. The exhibition toured various locations across Japan and ended on April 19 of the same year in Nagasaki, which was celebrating the 400th anniversary of the port opening up to foreign ships, before Suma donated 92 pieces from the exhibited works to Nagasaki Prefecture, forming the foundation for the Suma Collection in Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, which now adds up to 501 works.
From the outset, Nagasaki had had a deep relationship through trade with Spain and Portugal, called “Namban,” and was a port of call for Suma on his way to China, where he was first posted as a diplomat, so Nagasaki was a place filled with memories for Suma, having visited often during his posting to China. He may have also had a sense of atonement from the shame he felt for his failure to prevent the disasters in Nagasaki and Hiroshima despite the military intelligence he had obtained while posted to Madrid. At any rate, he had a special attachment to Nagasaki, which may have led him to donate the works he collected in Spain.
Having Spanish art as one of its mainstays, this year Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing and the 20th anniversary of the opening of the museum with an exhibition, From Goya to Picasso, and Nagasaki: Artists' Views of War. I believe it will be a good opportunity to contemplate war through the Spanish painters’ eyes, while you see the Suma Collection.
Dates: July 19 (Sat) - September 7 (Sun), 2025
About the time of his repatriation: It was on January 21, 1946 that Suma, who had been to the U.S., England, China, and Germany, left for Japan from Madrid, a city that had brought him to describing it as "the most momentous place in my entire life.” After leaving Madrid at 8:15 on special train number 802, he arrived in Barcelona in the middle of the night, at 23:50. Two days later, on the 23rd, he boarded the Plus Ultra, which had been arranged by the Spanish government (Photo 1), sailing to Naples, Haifa, Port Said, Suez, Colombo, then Singapore before arriving at the Spanish ship’s final destination, Manila, on March 13. In Manila, he transferred to the Tsukushi-maru, a demobilized ship dispatched from Japan, arriving at Uraga Port on March 26, two months after leaving Spain.
Photo 1
Returning to Japan on this ship were a total of 321 passengers, mainly overseas diplomatic mission officials and their families who had stayed behind in Europe and the Middle East, including special correspondents and trading company employees. Given that there were many government officials on board, they say that a U.S. submarine monitored the ship as it sailed alongside on the journey. After making landfall at Uraga Port, they were interrogated by GHQ (General Headquarters, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers) one by one on board before being permitted to disembark. Photo 2 shows Suma immediately after he had disembarked. I imagine the joy that Suma must have felt on returning home was mixed with anxiety, being under the cloud of an order issued for his arrest on suspicion of being a Class A war criminal.
Photo 2
