Teraoka’s depictions of Japanese men and Caucasian women snorkeling at the beach offer a frank critique of the sexual politics in a tourist destination such as Hawaiʻi. The artist includes in the series several characters teleported from early modern Japan, including the legendary ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Kunisada (1786–1865), who Teraoka cites as his primary source of stylistic inspiration. Surprising additions to the cast are catfish, which, despite their various meanings in Japanese mythology, are mainly intended here as whimsical references to the artist’s own mustached appearance.

View from Here to Eternity makes subtle reference to the 1953 film From Here to Eternity. In one scene from that film, shot on the beach of Halona Cove, Oahu, actors Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr passionately kiss, which so shocked American censors that the film was initially banned. Over half a century later, Teraoka reminds us, the beaches of Hawaiʻi continue to inspire such fantasies.