Expo '70

My recent post here about the 1964-65 World's Fair in Queens triggered a memory from my early childhood: when I was small, I inherited my mom's View Master from when she was a little girl (for the younger readers, Google "View Master" for an explanation) and for birthdays or holidays, relatives would buy me slides for it. Somewhere along the way, I got a set (mature readers will recall that sets came with 3 round discs or "reels") of Expo '70 as it was called: the 1970 World's Fair that was held in Osaka, Japan. As a child, the photos absolutely fascinated me. And even now, looking at photos of the Expo, I am stunned at how amazing the architecture is. Most of the buildings are truly "modern:" they reference nothing that existed at the time. They look like structures that we would see if we were to land on an alien planet. What are they for? Do creatures live in them? What odd materials and shapes...

I have never attended a World's Fair, but from what I have read and the pictures I have seen, this certainly has to be the strangest, most innovative, and most wonderful looking Fair either before or since!

Just like the '64-'65 World's Fair in Queens with its gigantic silver globe, Expo '70 had a breathtaking centerpiece at the entrance as well. This was the Tower of the Sun, designed by artist Tarō Okamoto. It was (and still is, thanks to conservation efforts) a totem-like structure, at once completely primitive and futuristic, featuring a white column with a folded face, stylized arms or wings, and a smaller gold disc face with an antenna at the top. This monumental, protective presence poked up out of a hole in a building that was called Big Roof and greeted visitors during the day, or at night when two Xenon arc lamps shone out of the eyes of the top-most golden face. The Tower of the Sun was hollow and held a colorful site-specific sculptural piece entitled "The Tree of Life," which represented the evolution of all life on earth. I recall the look of this sculpture vividly, seen in the third picture down, as one of the pictures from my View Master reel. At the time, I thought it was what the inside of a tree looked like under a microscope. And it probably is! Although I was a little boy in a tiny town in upstate New York, I felt like I had been to Expo '70 through these pictures and my imagination.


Top to bottom: Tower of the Sun; Tower of the Sun at night with lights shining from its eyes; The Tree of Life inside The Tower of the Sun; aerial view showing the cocoon/ larva-like Fuji Pavilion at the back; Expo '70 scenery; Gas Pavilion; Japanese Telecommunications Pavilion; Korea Pavilion; Switzerland Pavilion; Takara Beautilion; Toshiba-IHI Pavilion; Wacoal-Riccar Pavilion; the Expo '70 Tower; fountains of what seem to be levitating boxes designed by the legendary Isamu Noguchi.

Below is a marvelous film of home movies taken of the Expo.