Osaka Expo 大阪
Today, at our book club, re Erik Larson’s 2003 Devil in the White City, about World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago 1893 (and the series killer Holms). One of the clubbers shared her trip to Osaka’s 1970 World Fair when she and her husband stationed in Japan. A ticket for adult then was $2.23 / ¥800.
As it happens, Osaka is running it again right now, 2025, from April 13 to October 13, and (the ticket sale has just reached the break-even point with the operating expenses) it’s ¥7,500 ($50.94).
It’s August. The annual ritual is about discussing nuclear weapons. The major media outlets always giving the floor to Japanese survivors, letting them speak about the horror they experienced.
This year is the 80th anniveraary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9) in 1945 forced Japan to surrender unconditionally, which would end World War II. China was one of the primary beneficiaries. Who knows, we might speak Japanese nowadays, as the French speak German, if not for the A bomb.
I’m all for peace. But it seems no major media outlet talks about why President Harry S. Truman authorized the bombs, and how many lives were saved, Chinese among them.
