A photo exhibition on postwar Japan is underway at the Tokyo International Forum chronicling memorable events from the end of World War II to the present day.
The events include the late Emperor Hirohito's radio address informing the public of Japan's surrender in 1945 and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's decision last year to reinterpret the Constitution to permit Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense.
The exhibition, titled "70 Years After World War II — A News Agency as an Eyewitness," features more than 70 photos of major developments that made the front pages of Japanese newspapers and dominated TV screens.
Among the events covered are the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty in 1951, the wedding of Crown Prince Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko (now the Emperor and Empress) in 1959, the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and the reversion of Okinawa in 1972.
The exhibition, which runs through next Monday, includes full color photos of the Tokyo subway gassing in 1995 and the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami as well as the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
The exhibition has been organized by the nonprofit Japan Press Research Institute, which has held photo exhibitions on the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and subsequent recovery efforts, a half-century history of Tokyo, the history of postwar Japan and events toward the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Although Japan has made steady progress as a peaceful country since the war, "the Japanese government is moving to approve exercising the right to collective self-defense by reinterpreting the postwar Constitution, putting the country to the test as a peaceful country," Kazuaki Hasegawa, chairman of the institute, says in a message.
Kyodo News has assisted the institute in its exhibition projects.