LONDON — The British Museum in London is expanding the content of its already extensive Japanese Galleries with the showcase of three photo books by leading Japanese photographers from the postwar period — Shomei Tomatsu, Eiko Hosoe and Takashi Homma.

The photo books went on temporary display last week and are being used primarily to explore key issues of life in modern Japan.

Carrying on from a recent major renovation of the displays devoted to "Japan from prehistory to the present," the photo books, described as "essays in images," address through the three photographers three major themes: defeat and reconstruction, freeing the self, and Tokyo now and in the future.