Noi Sawaragi, War and Expo (Kodansha Academic Library 2877) The 1970 Osaka Expo began with the vision of a man who witnessed the "hypocenter" immediately after the war. Amidst the resounding slogan "Progress and Harmony for Mankind," which seemed to conceal the vision of excessive civilization and its demise, "Expo Art" blossomed as one extreme of avant-garde movements such as Metabolism and Neo-Dada. Through accumulated materials and testimonies, this book sharply questions the meaning of the Expo, which is repeatedly held in Japan. [From the text] Isn't the reason why media art, which owes much to technological innovation, and an easy progressivism that equates simple internationality with artistic advancement, are allowed to prevail, because we have not critically examined the issue of "the future" at the Osaka Expo head-on? In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that the role that artists played at the Osaka Expo has been virtually sealed off—and doesn't that resemble something? (From Chapter 2, "1970, Osaka, Senri Hills," excerpted)