The Japan Pavilions at the New York World's Fairs
in 1939-1940 and 1964-1965
in 1939-1940 and 1964-1965
The Japan Pavilions at the New York World's Fairs
in 1939-1940 and 1964-1965
World’s fairs have long served as stages on which nations present carefully constructed images of themselves to international audiences, with architecture playing a central role in shaping those presentations.
Japan’s participation in the New York World’s Fairs of 1939–40 and 1964–65 invites comparison, but the similarities are largely superficial. Although both fairs took place on the same site in Flushing Meadows, they emerged from very different historical circumstances. Between the two events, Japan experienced war, defeat, occupation, and rapid economic and social change. These shifts affected not only how Japan wished to present itself abroad, but also the role architecture was expected to play in doing so.
In 1939, pavilion architecture functioned largely as an instrument of state representation. Historicized forms communicated continuity, tradition, and legitimacy at a time of rising international tension. By 1964, Japan returned with a postwar generation of architects educated in international modernism and increasingly engaged with questions of urbanism, environment, and social responsibility. The architecture of the later fair conveyed less a unified message than a series of negotiations—between spectacle and restraint, commerce and critique, national projection and professional autonomy.
Seen in this light, the contrast between the two fairs reflects not simply changing styles or symbols, but deeper transformations in Japan’s relationship to the world and in the place of architecture within that relationship.
Exhibiting JAPAN: The Japan Pavilions at the New York World's Fairs in 1939-1940 and 1964-1965 was organized and curated by Yuka Yokoyama and Mac Gill at the Digital Museum of the History of Japanese in New York (DMHJNY) and advised by Angus Lockyer, area specialist and author of Exhibitionist Japan: The Spectacle of Modern Development (Cambridge University Press, 2025).
The exhibition essays include two major historical essays by Angus Lockyer, Japan in New York, 1939–1940 and Japan in New York, 1964–1965, each structured around the themes of Prologue, The City and the Fair, Japan at the Fair, and Japan in New York; accompanied by a Foreword, A Tale of JAPAN Pavilions, and an Afterword, After the Fairs, by Yuka Yokoyama.
Exhibitions and public lecture programs at DMHJNY are made possible, in part, by the U.S.-Japan Foundation, the Japan World Exposition 1970 Commemorative Fund (JEC Fund), the SMBC Global Foundation, and the Consulate General of Japan in New York.
Research and archival materials were provided by the Japanese American Association of New York (JAANY), the New York Public Library (NYPL), the Queens Museum, Mayekawa Associates, Architects & Engineers, the Uchida Yoshikazu Collection at the University of Tokyo Architectural Archives, and the National Archives of Modern Architecture, Agency for Cultural Affairs, unless otherwise noted in the captions.
This project was reviewed and architectural supervision provided by Hiroshi Matsukuma (Professor, Kanagawa University; Professor Emeritus, Kyoto Institute of Technology), Isao Hashimoto (Director, Mayekawa Associates, Architects & Engineers), and Shinichi Fuma (Nonfiction Writer and Editor, Fuma Workshop).
DMHJNY would like to thank Michiyo Noda (Executive Director, JAANY), Akemi Takeda, and Eiko Aono (JAANY Archive Volunteers) for sharing archival materials and personal histories as living witnesses of the Japanese and Japanese American community in New York, and the DMHJNY Exhibit Committee: Shunichi Homma, Susan J. Onuma, Haruko Wakabayashi, Kirsten Ziomek, and Lane Walker.
We also thank Ken Tadashi Oshima (Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington) for his advice and for introducing specialists to this project.
We are deeply grateful to the TOPPAN team for developing the exhibition website and producing the 3D models for this project.