Remarks in March 2007
Mr. Shigenobu Kato, Ambassador of Japan, delivered a speech at the opening of the Photo Exhibition “Scenes of Childhood: Sixty Years of Postwar Japan” at the GAM City Hall on 22 March 2007
H.E. Eng. Omar Maani, Lord Mayor of the Greater Amman Municipality,
Excellencies,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of the Government of Japan, it gives me the great honor to welcome you all here this evening to the Photo Exhibition under the title of “Scenes of Childhood: Sixty Years of Postwar Japan”.
I would like to begin by expressing my sincere gratitude to H.E. Eng. Omar Maani, Lord Mayor of the Greater Amman Municipality for His Excellency’s hospitality to host this exhibition at the City Hall as well as the Japan Film Week at Al-Hussein Cultural Center that organized early in this month. I am very grateful for the Lord Mayor’s professional staff who has played a great role in the development of cultural activities and mutual understanding among civilizations.
The evolution of Information Technology which Internet represents has definitely shortened a gap between nations. There is no gainsaying its advantages in communication and adding our stock of knowledge. Nevertheless, an encounter with a real thing still deserves praise and attention. The wild flowers in Iraq Al-Amir in the springtime, Ain Ghazal statues at the Archeological Museum, or the Roman Theatre in Amman downtown, those substantial charms of this beautiful city attract tourists. Experiencing a non-virtual, real thing would indeed bridge nations and civilizations. In this perspective, I am honored with that Japan as a partner of Jordan has participated in its tourism projects, which would increase fascinations of the Hashemite Kingdom and contribute to the mutual understanding among people.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Embassy of Japan in Jordan organized Japanese cultural events for many years as part of its efforts to provide Jordanian people with an opportunity to touch authentic Japanese culture in various forms of art. The 100 works in this photo exhibition are genuine art as well as real document of Japanese children for sixty years, dating from 1945, the end of the Second World War, to the present.
I myself was born in 1944. Looking back my career in the past sixty years, a thousand emotions crowd in on me. The scenes depicted in the photographs overlap my life, so that I can talk a lot about them. However, I am confident the photos would much rather talk to you.
To conclude my remarks, I would like to express my heartfelt wish that an encounter with the real scenes of childhood for sixty years of Japan will further enhance the mutual understanding between Japan and Jordan as well as make each of us a fresh determination that we have to work together to realize a better tomorrow for next generation.
Thank you.
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