Expo '75
Expo '75 (Japanese: 沖縄国際海洋博覧会, romanized: Okinawa kokusai kaiyou hakurankai ) was a World's Fair held on the island of Okinawa in Japan from July 20, 1975, to January 18, 1976.
History
Expo 75 was conceived, in part, to commemorate the American handover of Okinawa to Japan in 1972. The theme of the exposition was the oceans, and focused on oceanographic technologies, marine life, and oceanic cultures. The motto was “The sea we would like to see" (海-その望ましい未来, Umi - sono nozomashii mirai).
The event was located on the western end of the Motobu Peninsula, with a site area of 1,000,000 square metres (including sea areas). Thirty-seven nations participated, along with eight domestic and three international organizations. The keynote speaker on opening day was American author James A. Michener.
The exposition is the given reason for the construction of the Nakagusuku Hotel.
Expo 75 site
The site was divided into four “Clusters” in which there were pavilions and exhibits:
Fish Cluster
Peoples and History Cluster
- International Pavilion No. 1
- Okinawa Pavilion
- EXPO Hall
- Hitachi Pavilion
- Oceanic Culture Museum — Audio-visual hall, planetarium and exhibition hall displaying ships, carvings, and other cultural items from the Pacific Ocean area.
- Mitsubishi Pavilion — Ride featuring underwater technologies
- International Pavilion No. 2
Science and Technology Cluster
- World Ocean Systems (W.O.S) — Whale-shaped theater.
- Mistui Children’s Pavilion
- Fuyo Group Pavilion — Featuring oceanic robotics and aerial garden.
- U.S.A. Pavilion
- Aquapolis — Centerpiece floating city.
- Canada Pavilion
- Australia Pavilion
- Italy Pavilion
- U.S.S.R. Pavilion
- Expo New City Car (K.R.T.)
Ships Cluster
- International Pavilion No. 3
- Midori/Icearama Pavilion – Iceberg-shaped building displaying a 3,000-year-old ice core, and a 12,000-year-old ice core.
- EXPO Port
- Guest House
There was also EXPO Port, EXPO Beach, and an amusement park named EXPO Land.
Highlights
The centerpiece of Expo 75 was the Aquapolis a floating city designed by Japanese architect Kiyonori Kikutake. It was envisioned as a concept of how humans could live harmoniously on the ocean, and a prototype for marine communities. The Aquapolis was constructed at a shipyard in Hiroshima, Japan, and then towed to the Expo site. The facility was funded by the Japanese government, and cost 13 billion yen. It was thirty-two meters high, and had a one-hundred square meter deck. It was later sold for scrap in 2000.
The Expo Transit System featured two types of automated, electric transport vehicles: The "Expo New City Cars" (KRT) ran on a 3.7 km track almost the whole length of the site, there were three stations. The Expo Future Cars (CVS) track was at the north end and connected the Fish Cluster with Expo Land via five stations.
Post-Exposition
After the Expo was over, the site became Okinawa Commemorative National Government Park (国営沖縄記念公園), also known as Ocean Expo Park. Most of the exhibits were removed, although the Aquapolis was retained as an attraction and eventually hosted four million visitors. As years passed, the number of visitors to the Aquapolis declined and it was closed in 1993. In October 2000, the Aquapolis was towed away to Shanghai to be scrapped.
The main tank of the aquarium facility that was opened at Expo was the largest indoor aquarium in the world at that time with a water volume of 1,100,000 litres (291,000 US gal). After that, we continued to use the Aquarium facility used in Expo'75 and opened it as the Okinawa Ocean Expo Aquarium. The Okinawa Ocean Expo Aquarium was closed in 2002 due to aging and then reopened as Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.
The Tropical & Subtropical Arboretum were later constructed on the site.
External links
- Official website of the BIE
- Ocean Expo Park
- Scrapping of the Aquapolis
- Preparing Okinawa for Reversion to Japan: The Okinawa International Ocean Exposition of 1975, the US Military and the Construction State
- v
- t
- e
recognized
expositions
- London 1851
- Paris 1855
- London 1862
- Paris 1867
- Vienna 1873
- Philadelphia 1876
- Paris 1878
- Melbourne 1880
- Barcelona 1888
- Paris 1889
- Chicago 1893
- Brussels 1897
- Paris 1900
- St. Louis 1904
- Liège 1905
- Milan 1906
- Brussels 1910
- Turin 1911
- Ghent 1913
- San Francisco 1915
- Barcelona 1929
- Seville 1929
- Chicago 1933
Universal
expositions
specialized
expositions
- Stockholm 1936
- Helsinki 1938
- Liège 1939
- Paris 1947
- Stockholm 1949
- Lyon 1949
- Lille 1951
- Jerusalem 1953
- Rome 1953
- Naples 1954
- Turin 1955
- Helsingborg 1955
- Beit Dagan 1956
- Berlin 1957
- Turin 1961
- Munich 1965
- San Antonio 1968
- Budapest 1971
- Spokane 1974
- Okinawa 1975
- Plovdiv 1981
- Knoxville 1982
- New Orleans 1984
- Plovdiv 1985
- Tsukuba 1985
- Vancouver 1986
- Brisbane 1988
- Plovdiv 1991
- Genoa 1992
- Taejŏn 1993
- Lisbon 1998
- Zaragoza 2008
- Yeosu 2012
- Astana 2017
Buenos Aires 2023‡- Belgrade 2027
horticultural
exhibitions (AIPH)
- Rotterdam 1960
- Paris 1969
- Amsterdam 1972
- Hamburg 1973
- Vienna 1974
- Montreal 1980
- Amsterdam 1982
- Munich 1983
- Liverpool 1984
- Osaka 1990
- Zoetermeer 1992
- Stuttgart 1993
- Kunming 1999
- Haarlemmermeer 2002
- Rostock 2003
- Chiang Mai 2006–2007
- Venlo 2012
- Antalya 2016
- Beijing 2019
- Almere 2022
- Doha 2023
- Yokohama 2027
recognized
- † Postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic
- ‡ Cancelled
- World portal