A collection of nearly 300 images captured by renowned photographer Akihiko Okamura are on display at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, chronicling a career that drew international attention following his critically acclaimed coverage of the Vietnam War over half a century ago.
Okamura, a former medical student, began his career as a photojournalist in 1962 while working in Thailand. Then 33, he had drifted through a wide variety of different jobs, including work as a clerical assistant at a monastery and as a rights activist for Japan's socially ostracized "burakumin" communities.
He shot to fame in June 1964 when the U.S. magazine Life carried his photographs of the Vietnam War as part of a nine-page feature. Buoyed by the success, he continued traveling around the world, covering the conflict in Northern Ireland as well as the Biafran War in Nigeria.