The Japan Foundation, Sao Paulo：Photo Exhibition "Scenes of Childhood: Sixty Years of Postwar Japan": Children Lived in the Same Time, Halfway around the Globe

The Japan Foundation, Sao Paulo

The Japan Foundation, Sao Paulo, in cooperation with local Japanese-Brazilian communities, hosted a photo exhibition "Scenes of Childhood: Sixty Years of Postwar Japan" in January 2010. This is one of the Japan Foundation's Traveling Exhibitions with 100 photographic works focusing on the everyday life of children that depict social transformation in Japan after the devastation of the World War II to the present. In Sao Paulo, many people were still on their vacation in January, but this exhibition attracted nearly one thousand visitors within a short duration of two weeks. It also received media coverage including two major TV stations, so the overall response was excellent. The theme of the exhibition, children and postwar reconstruction of society, contributed to such attention from the public and the media, but there was more to it. To compare and contrast with the photographs of children in Japan, we exhibited photographs of children of Japanese immigrants in Brazil. These children were living in the same period but on the other end of the globe. Thanks to the cooperation of the Instituto Moreira Salles, we presented the slide show of photographs by the late Haruo Ohara on a large screen. Mr. Ohara's camera captured the scenes of descendants of Japanese immigrants in colonies in Brazil. This parallel exhibition helped the audience to pay closer attention to the relationship between Japan and Brazil. Sao Paulo is the city with the largest Japanese-descendant community in the world, and there are many Japanese residents who spent their childhood in the postwar Japan before immigrated to Brazil. Such historical background made this photo exhibition a significant event.

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