The number of non-Korean nationals leaving the island without authorization, along with brokers facilitating their illegal entry, is increasing steadily. Non-Koreans entering Jeju Island via the visa-free system may stay without a visa for up to 30 days, but are generally not permitted to travel to the mainland, which is just 83 kilometers away.

According to the Jeju Coast Guard, there were seven cases of unauthorized attempts to reach the mainland in 2024 involving individuals who entered Jeju Island through its visa-free entry system.

A total of 18 people, including foreign nationals and Korean brokers, have been caught, while authorities believe many more have evaded detection. Among them, eight were Chinese, one was Vietnamese, five were Indonesian and four were Korean brokers accused of facilitating the illegal departures. Sixteen of the suspects have been arrested.

The number of such cases surged compared to 2023, when only two incidents were reported, leading to the arrest of four individuals.

In recent years, there have been growing concerns about foreign nationals abusing visa systems in other Northeast Asian countries like Japan. According to Japan’s immigration statistics, nearly 150,000 foreign nationals overstayed their visas in 2020, with a significant number entering on short-term tourist visas and then staying in the country illegally. In 2020, Korea reported around 80,000 foreign nationals overstaying their visas, with many entering on short-term tourist visas and staying illegally, according to the Korea Immigration Service.

Jeju Island implemented a visa-free entry system to promote tourism, allowing travelers from 111 countries to stay for up to 30 days without a visa, with the goal of boosting tourism. The program was temporarily suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic but began to be gradually reinstated in April 2023.

However, authorities have noted a growing number of cases where individuals exploit the policy to leave the island illegally to enter the mainland and engage in illegal activities such as unauthorized employment.

Many are using ports, where inspections are less stringent than at airports, to evade detection. Police warn that these methods are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

On Jan. 15 this year, police arrested 11 Vietnamese nationals attempting to depart Jeju Island for the mainland, along with a Korean broker who helped them.

The group — seven men and four women — was caught hiding inside a 5-ton cargo truck at Pier 6 of Jeju Port, attempting to board a ship bound for Wando, an island county in southwestern Korea. Investigators believe they entered Jeju under the visa-free entry system with the intention of working in other parts of Korea.

Many unauthorized departures follow a similar pattern, with individuals concealing themselves in vans or trucks to evade detection. Some hide inside cargo trucks carrying tangerines from Jeju, while others endure long periods inside freezer truck iceboxes to avoid detection.

The brokers receive a fee of around 2.5 million won ($1,746) per person from the visitors, often lowering the fee through negotiations when facilitating group departures. They have been profiting from these illegal activities by arranging unauthorized exits.

An official at the Jeju Coast Guard reported that the number of illegal movements by non-Koreans entering Jeju visa-free has been rising since last year. The crimes are becoming more sophisticated and organized, involving transportation networks, mediation groups and overseas brokers.

In response, authorities plan to intensify their crackdown on maritime border crimes by analyzing evolving patterns. Police have also urged the public to report any suspicious ships or vehicles related to visa violations to nearby coast guards, immigration offices or maritime fisheries management teams.

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According to the 2024 survey conducted by the Ministry of Unification, 57.2 percent of respondents said they want to see their loved ones in North Korea, down from 65.8 percent in 2021. The demand to visit their hometowns in the North dropped by 26.7 percentage points, while the demand for letter exchanges also declined by about 8 percentage points.

The survey gathered responses from 35,542 South Koreans and 475 Koreans living abroad, primarily in the U.S. They had all registered themselves on a list of people believed to have family ties in the North.

The two Koreas remain technically at war as the Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. Since the first Seoul-Pyongyang summit in 2000, the two sides have held 21 rounds of in-person family reunions, including the latest one in August 2018. Since then, almost all forms of exchanges have been halted amid North Korea’s continued nuclear and missile provocations.

The unification ministry noted that the latest results reflect lowered expectations about the possibility of direct relatives in the North still surviving. It also mentioned that the survey cycle was shortened from five to three years, as more South Koreans have passed away of old age without the opportunity to reunite with their relatives in North Korea.

According to the results, 63.6 percent of those living in South Korea and 60.9 percent of those living abroad are currently over the age of 80.

Nearly 76 percent of respondents said they are unable to confirm whether their long-lost relatives are still alive in the North.

Data shows that of the 134,291 South Koreans on the waiting list for government-arranged reunions, 97,350 have passed away as of last month.

In terms of policy priorities, 77.2 percent of respondents said the most urgent need is for the government to find out if their family members in the North are still alive and to be notified when they die. About 37.5 percent requested regular family reunions, followed by letter exchanges (18.2 percent) and virtual reunions (11.8 percent). Respondents were allowed to select more than one policy priority.

In an in-depth interview with 5,103 selected participants in the latest survey, 55.3 percent of respondents expressed a desire to know whether their family members in the North are still alive. However, 19.4 percent said they no longer wish to find out.

About 14.4 percent selected in-person reunions as their preference, followed by just 3.5 percent who expressed their wishes to visit their hometowns in the North.

“We will establish and promote policies for inter-Korean separated families that better meet their demands considering changes in preferences and the aging of separated families,” a unification ministry official said.

The government designated Aug. 13 on the lunar calendar, or two days before the Chuseok holiday, as Separated Families Day in 2023 as part of broader efforts to raise awareness about the issue of separated families.

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The hospital remains one of the few still operational in the area, where only a handful of doctors remain to treat patients amid a severe shortage or complete depletion of essential medical supplies.

“We are now facing direct bombing of the intensive care unit again,” Dr Hussam Abu Safia said in a video statement on Saturday night, calling on the international community to protect the hospital and its 66 remaining patients as well as medical staff.

“The nursery, maternity, and all departments of the hospital are being targeted by the occupation forces with all types of weapons, including sniper fire, tank shells, and quadcopters,” he added.

“For more than an hour now, shells are raining down on us from every corner, mile, and direction.”

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from nearby Deir el-Balah, said, “What we are seeing now is a deliberate attack on the health facility.”

“The Israeli military has ordered evacuations from the hospital, but they have also created an intimidating environment that makes people feel it’s unsafe to leave.”

Mahmoud added that contact with those besieged at the hospital had been lost overnight.

Footage verified by Al Jazeera showed wounded Palestinians taking shelter in the hospital’s corridors, away from the windows, after Israeli forces opened fire on the facility. Despite that, Mahmoud said, “many injuries” were reported as bullets penetrated the walls, also damaging equipment.

Al Jazeera Arabic correspondents in Gaza also said they lost touch with journalists inside the hospital amid the ongoing assault. According to the channel, al-Awda Hospital located in the Jabalia refugee camp also came under attack.

The relentless Israeli attacks on medical facilities, including Kamal Adwan, drew a response from World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who called it “deeply worrisome”. He urged for an “immediate ceasefire” in the area that has been under siege for more than 70 days.

More than 14 months of nonstop Israeli attacks have devastated the enclave and displaced almost the entire 2.4 million of its population. More than 45,000 people, mostly children and women, have been killed in the offensive that has caused global condemnation.

Israel justifies its deadly attacks as a response to Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, in which nearly 1,100 people were killed and some 250 were taken captive.

Abu Safia said Israeli forces use the pretext that the hospital is a combat zone to justify attacks on the hospital.

“We hold the world responsible for what is occurring and for our repeated appeals,” he said, adding that “there seems to be no response” to the pleas from the international community.

34 Palestinians killed in a day

Gaza health officials said Israel killed 34 Palestinians, including 19 since Sunday dawn, in the past 24 hours.

Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud said Gaza has evolved into “a killing box with attacks around the clock” as four children were among five killed in the Israeli attack on Jabalia on Sunday.

At least eight people, including four children, were killed in yet another attack on a school repurposed as a shelter for Palestinians displaced by the war. The Israeli military confirmed Saturday’s attack on the school, saying it targeted a Hamas “command and control centre”.

A woman inspects the damage at the site of an Israeli strike that targeted the Musa bin Nusayr School in the Al-Daraj neighbourhood in Gaza City on Sunday. [Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP]

Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation deteriorated in Gaza, particularly in northern areas, which has been under military siege for weeks.

In a statement on X, the World Food Programme said since the siege began in October, it has filed 101 requests with the Israeli authorities to allow delivery of food aid to northern Gaza, including to Beit Hanoon, Beit Lahiya and Jabalia, but that only three of them had been granted.

Israel has faced accusations of genocide over its blocking of aid and basic necessities to the Gaza Strip. In the latest report, Human Rights Watch said earlier this week that since October last year, Israeli authorities have “deliberately obstructed Palestinians’ access to the adequate amount of water required for survival in the Gaza Strip”.

“Over one million children, the whole population of Gaza is impacted by this war,” Rachel Cummings, Save the Children’s humanitarian director in Gaza, told Al Jazeera.

“We are seeing children deeply affected by this onslaught, but the medium and longer-term impact is terrifying,” she said. “We provide immediate alleviation of suffering, but we know that what we do is a drop in the ocean.”

The continuing attacks come even as Palestinian groups say a ceasefire deal is “closer than ever”.

In a rare joint statement, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said a ceasefire in Gaza and a captive release deal was possible provided Israel does not impose new conditions in negotiations.

On October 7 last year, Palestinian fighters took about 250 captives, of whom 96 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

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The devil works hard, but Amazon merch sellers work harder. Over the past several weeks, reports of large drone sightings over New Jersey have been accumulating on Facebook pages, Reddit threads, and through calls to FBI hotlines. The story began to attract national attention last week, with interest in the topic spiking sharply on Google between December 8 and 14.

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The report, compiled jointly by Statistics Korea and the Korea Immigration Service, analyzed the quality of life for 1.56 million foreign residents this year. They included temporary workers, highly skilled professionals, students, ethnic Koreans and spouses of Korean citizens.

Of the respondents, 90.4 percent expressed a desire to remain in Korea after their current stay ends, up from 89.6 percent in 2023. Permanent residents and naturalized Koreans were not included in the survey.

A total of 61.6 percent of the aforementioned respondents this year said they were thinking about extending their visas. The other 16.9 percent seek to secure permanent residency and another 10.3 percent want to acquire Korean citizenship.

The findings come as Korea is on the cusp of becoming a multicultural society, which, according to the OECD, is defined by foreign nationals exceeding 5 percent of the total population. The foreign population reached 4.89 percent in 2023.

In 2023, Korea experienced the second-fastest growth rate of immigrants globally, at 50.9 percent, trailing only the United Kingdom, which saw a 52.9 percent increase, according to the OECD.

Under the circumstances, 84.3 percent of the surveyed foreign nationals said they were satisfied with life in Korea this year. The rate went up from 80.4 percent in 2022.

Over the 2022-24 period, the ratio of those satisfied with their job advanced from 68.6 percent to 72.6 percent.

The ratio of those satisfied with their income also moved up from 53.3 percent to 58.2 percent.

Concerning housing conditions, the ratio of those who are satisfied increased from 79.2 percent to 84 percent.

The 2024 report showed that foreign workers totaled 1.01 million, representing an increase of 87,000 individuals, or 0.2 percentage points, from a year earlier.

It was the first time that the number surpassed the 1 million mark, as Korea is grappling with a declining population and is increasingly relying on immigrant workers to do a range of jobs.

Of the 1.01 million, 956,000 were wage workers, the majority of whom were employed by small and medium-sized enterprises.

A total of 51.2 percent of these wage workers earned a monthly income of between 2 million won ($1,389.94) and 3 million won. The ratio went up from 50.6 percent in 2023.

In the 2022-23 period, those earning 3 million won or more per month also rose from 35.8 percent to 37.1 percent.

When asked about the difficulties of living in Korea, 34.7 percent of foreign nationals surveyed this year responded with “None.” However, 29.8 percent identified language as a barrier, while 13 percent cited loneliness.

With regard to discrimination, 17.4 percent of respondents said that they have experienced it.

About 54.5 percent of those who felt they were discriminated against said it was due to their country of origin, while 31.2 percent attributed it to the language barrier.

The victims of discrimination responded passively, with only 15.3 percent publicly addressing the issue.

Among foreign nationals with children, under 18, 35.7 percent reported facing challenges in their children’s education, with more than half of which citing difficulty helping with homework. Nearly half of the foreign residents expressed that their children’s education costs are burdensome.

When asked to identify the obstacles to becoming a member of Korean society, 44.7 percent cited language as a barrier, while 11.8 percent considered religion a problem.

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Netanyahu, 75, has been widely accused of using Israel’s various regional wars as a way of either avoiding giving evidence in the trial or even ending it completely.

Last month he reportedly asked Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, to help him get out of testifying, arguing that it would be a security risk for him to be in a known location for an extended period.

Israel’s longest-serving leader and its defining politician, who now heads a government dependent on key members of the country’s far-right settler movement, is the first sitting Israeli prime minister to be charged with a crime.

Charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust, Netanyahu will testify three times a week, the court said, despite Israel’s war on Gaza, the fragile ceasefire in Lebanon and its incursions into Syria.

The Palestinian death toll in besieged Gaza rose to 44,758 on Tuesday, as Israel shows no sign of stopping the bloodshed.

Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 in three cases involving gifts from millionaire friends and for allegedly seeking regulatory favours for media tycoons in return for favourable coverage. He denies any wrongdoing.

The prime minister arrived at Tel Aviv District Court at around 10am local time on Tuesday morning, wearing a dark blue suit and white shirt, with an Israeli flag pin on one label and a yellow ribbon symbolising the hostages held in Gaza on the other.

“I have been waiting for eight years for this moment to tell the truth,” Netanyahu told the three judges hearing the case in an underground courtroom, according to Reuters. “But I am also a prime minister… I am leading the country through a seven-front war. And I think the two can be done in parallel.”

Before Netanyahu took the stand, his lawyer Amit Hadad told judges that there were fundamental flaws in the case against his client, and that prosecutors “weren’t investigating a crime, they were going after a person.”

Outside the courtroom, a few dozen protesters had gathered, some of them supporters and others – including family members of the roughly 100 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza – calling for Netanyahu to stop obstructing a deal to bring those hostages home.

Alon Pinkas, a prominent Israeli diplomat, told Middle East Eye Netanyahu’s appearance in court was “significant but not critical since his testimony will take months”.

Cigars, champagne and jewellery 

Of the various allegations levelled at Netanyahu, the most eye-catching involve the receipt of nearly $200,000 worth of gifts from a billionaire Hollywood film producer.

Arnon Milchan, an Israeli businessman, film producer and former spy, took the stand last June to describe how he routinely delivered tens of thousands of dollars worth of champagne, cigars and other gifts requested by Netanyahu.

According to the court indictment, Milchan, whose production credits include hits such as Pretty Woman and 12 Years a Slave, gave Netanyahu and his wife boxes of cigars, jewellery and crates of champagne over a period of several years.

On the eve of his testimony, Netanyahu was typically bullish in his defence, describing his investigation as a witch hunt and claiming that for “eight years I’ve been waiting for this day. Eight years I have waited to present the truth.”

“The real threat to democracy in Israel is not posed by the public’s elected representatives, but by some among the law enforcement authorities who refuse to accept the voters’ choice and are trying to carry out a coup with rabid political investigations that are unacceptable in any democracy,” he added in a statement.

Netanyahu’s son, Yair, has compared those investigating his father to Nazi Germany’s Gestapo and East Germany’s Stasi.

Before Israel’s war on Gaza began in the wake of the 7 October Hamas-led attacks, Netanyahu’s legal troubles bitterly divided Israelis and shook the country’s politics through five rounds of elections.

His government’s bid last year to curb powers of the judiciary further polarised Israelis, but the shock of the Hamas-led attacks and the ensuing war swept Netanyahu’s trial off the public agenda as the country united.

In recent weeks, though, members of Netanyahu’s cabinet have clashed with Israel’s judiciary and the International Criminal Court (ICC) has heaped further legal jeopardy onto Netanyahu by issuing arrest warrants for him and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

Both men are charged by the ICC with alleged war crimes. Nevertheless, an Israeli security source told MEE they expected Netanyahu to remain in power in the short to medium term.

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The Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei in his message to the Hajj pilgrims stressed that renunciation of the Zionist regime and the United States must continue beyond Hajj.

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Mawlana Nasrullah Malekzada, Head of Information and Culture in Panjshir, stated that this program was launched by the Ministry of Information and Culture in collaboration with the local administration.

A five-member technical and professional delegation from the Deputy Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Ministry visited Panjshir to identify tourism and recreational areas.

This delegation visited seven districts of Panjshir, including Bazarak, the provincial center, and conducted surveys of natural attractions and recreational spots. Areas such as Shalzar, Marghuzar, and Saleh Olang, along with other tourist spots, were comprehensively surveyed.

The Head of Information and Culture in Panjshir mentioned that after identifying and registering these tourist areas, infrastructure projects such as the construction of cable cars, hotels, recreational parks, and boating facilities will be initiated in the future.

Meanwhile, Hafiz Mohammad Agha Hakim, Governor of Panjshir, welcomed the completion of the survey work and promised cooperation for the development of the tourism industry.

On the other hand, Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa, the Acting Minister of Information and Culture, assured that practical steps and initial measures would be taken to foster the growth and development of tourism in Panjshir. This initiative is set to invigorate the region’s tourism industry and enhance its economic and cultural landscape.

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I can imagine my great-grandfather, a Grand Army of the Republic veteran, telling the old fellows down at the GAR hall what he had seen. The splash of light at night, illuminating the stately classical structures, their alabaster reflections shimmering in the dark lagoon. The gold Statue of the Republic, glowing with hope and promise. The halls full of inventions. The great Ferris wheel ploughing a furrow in the sky. He might have leaned closer and said he’d slipped away from his wife and paid a visit to see Little Egypt dance. And gentlemen, the stories are true.

He saved the ticket. He must have bought his wife, or young daughter, the hat-pin box. He may have seen it on the dressing table years later and thought of the trip, of the tumult of Chicago, the tall towers, the great lake beyond, the stink of the stockyards, the gleaming White City rising like a dream of Rome. He might have thought about how it ended in fire, how he felt a small pang upon reading of its destruction. It was never meant to last. But here was this small silver box to prove it had not been a mirage, and that he had walked its streets and thought: This is the world to come.

Many years ago in New York, in a parking-ramp flea market, I found an extraordinary remnant of the 1939 World’s Fair. It was a mashup of the iconic—sorry, but the cliche applies—Trylon and Perisphere. Some sort of bottle with a screw-top. Absolutely hideous.

Of course, I had to buy it. The vendor had a few more items: a ticket, a button, a guide to an exhibit, a book of views. I bought the lot. They sit on a shelf with my World’s Fairs collection, including a glass paperweight from the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. It has a picture of the Travel and Transport Building, which looks like a moon base built by Mayans. It’s next to my great-grandfather’s ticket. I wonder what the man who was left for dead on the battlefield in 1864 would have thought of the modernistic visions of the Fair that followed the one he visited.

He might have thought that the old world had fallen, utterly, and that a new civilization had arisen in its ashes. He wouldn’t have been entirely wrong.

The other day a friend sent a pamphlet about the 1964 World’s Fair. It was produced by a whiskey company, and contained drink recipes to enjoy whether you were at the Fair, or at home contemplating the new world the Fair represented. The Unisphere figured prominently in the illustrations. Everyone in America knew what it was: an enormous globe made of steel. The old world was dense and thick, trudging around the sun. The new world was light and confident, stripped to the basics, the old impediments shed.

I wondered why I’d never come across many 1964 World’s Fair items in my antique store excavations. The generation that brought things home from the Fair is passing in waves, their possessions sent to the thrift stores by children indifferent to their meaning, or just burdened by the obligation of carrying the items forward. Maybe there wasn’t good merch. The only thing I’ve found and bought was a deck of cards that showed the various buildings at the Fair. Baroque modernism at its inflection point, yearning to be kitschy and inventive, but still worried about getting a tut-tut finger-wag of disapproval from the ghosts of the Bauhaus.

The 1964 World’s Fair was square culture: the last parade for the grown-ups. Look at the videos that survive, and you see the dads with their skinny ties, short-sleeve dress shirts and high-and-tight haircuts, Instamatic cameras and Winstons. Moms with hairstyles that could’ve come out of a soft-serve ice cream machine. Young girls with Clairol-washed flip ’dos. The children look like junior adults. They probably grew up to forget the Fair, renounce it, then paused when they found photos in a box after the parents died and wondered where that world went.

It’s been decades since a World’s Fair last made a mark on the American imagination. Knoxville held one in 1982, and while a few may remember its landmark symbol—the Sunsphere—most Americans would look at a picture of the thing and think it was a failed Vegas attraction. The ’82 World’s Fair was a “specialized Expo,” dedicated to a particular theme—in this case, energy. Same thing with our last Fair, the ill-fated New Orleans entry of 1984, which had the distinction of being the first Fair to go bankrupt while it was happening, instead of afterwards.

True World’s Fairs are World Expositions: Come one, come all. They’re still happening. The next one’s in 2025 in Osaka. Dubai had one in 2020. Riyadh will host one in 2030, and the theme is “The Era of Change: Together for a Foresighted Tomorrow,” which sounds like Chat-GPT and Davos got married. The Fairs still have their landmark icons—Milan in 2015 had a glowing “Tree of Life.” Dubai had… a big blue dome. Shanghai had a big, illuminated funnel.

Anyone remember the buzz? No one in the States pays much attention to these because they’re elsewhere. The last foreign World’s Fair that seemed to have any profile in the USA was the Brussels Expo of 1958, perhaps because it was the first since World War II. And it had a big abstract atom as its symbol, mirroring the Fair’s slogan: “For God’s Sake Can We Just Not Use This to Blow Everything the Hell Up Again.”

Kidding. The slogan was “Evaluation of the world for a more humane world.” Sounds a little better in French.

Now and then, you hear about the U.S. making a pitch. Bloomington, Minnesota, home of the nation’s biggest shopping mall, tried to get a specialized Expo for 2027, but lost to Belgrade, Serbia. We’ll probably try again, but you get the feeling that the international body that hands out locations figures we’ve had our time in the sun. The world is so much more than the United States, after all. Everyone has our number. What surprises could we offer?

And it’s not as if we’re clamoring for another one. The United States Information Agency was the government body that handled our participation in World’s Fairs, and Congress axed that agency in 1998. Who knows—maybe they sent us a letter asking if we’d like to host one, and it came back “no such address.”

Americans seem OK with this. After all, we have our permanent theme parks, which have all of the fantastical environments without the spinach. There’s no Palace of Industrial Machinery at Disneyworld, no Pavilion of Cellophane at Six Flags.

And that’s a pity. The exhibits designed to show American know-how and can-do are one of the things that made the old World’s Fairs great. Mr. Otis showed off his safety-brake elevator at the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City in 1853, a proto-Fair. The hot dog was supposedly introduced at the 1893 Columbian Expo. The 1939 Fair had Elektro, a robot who talked and smoked cigarettes—and ended up in a 1960s B-movie, “Sex Kittens Go to College.”

Oh, and it had this thing called “television.” RCA inaugurated its first regular schedule at the Fair, and people who’d only read about TV in magazines saw it work. It was here. It was real. The 1964 World’s Fair had the Picturephone, a video-calling system that everyone knew would be the logical evolution of the telephone.

In short: The World’s Fair gave us a glimpse of things to come. Wonderful things! “I have seen the future,” said the button you got when you visited General Motors’ Futurama pavilion at the ’39 Fair, and you could go back to Nebraska or Florida or Oregon knowing you had been offered a glimpse of the world en route.

Of course, the new world never arrives all at once, fully formed and expertly landscaped. We get bits and pieces, dribs and drabs. For example, the classical architecture of the 1893 Fair—and a reprise of the style at 1904’s St. Louis Expo—gave rise to the “City Beautiful” movement. People who’d gone to see the White City in Chicago went home, looked at their tired old buildings and messy rambling streets, and thought: Why not drive a diagonal boulevard through this town and line the streets with Beaux-Arts buildings? Many cities commissioned plans; few followed through. But now and then you might find a remnant of something that followed the City Beautiful ideas, like the ruins of the Forum in Rome.

Not all of the visions aged well. The Futurama of the 1939 Fair laid out a version of the future that was ambitious and intellectual, a “Things To Come” technocratic assurance that top men, smart men, men with plans, would shape the cities into great efficient machines, not style-garbled patchworks of offices and shops. Broad streets would cut between severe and aloof towers. Empty plazas with modern sculpture. Elevated sidewalks. A bit too much Le Corbusier and not enough Hugh Ferriss.

But the optimism was there. The optimism is always there. The American iterations of the World’s Fair had such brash faith in the ingenuity and strength of the nation. If you only have a thumbnail knowledge of the Depression—everything in sepia, breadlines, the skies darkened by brokers jumping from windows, dust bowls—then the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago seems like a mad idea. Throwing a party in the middle of a plague. The architecture seemed to say: “We know, we know—the old world’s dead. Let’s start the whole thing over with stark towers that look like Eloi churches from the year 6039. Also, here’s a charming old-world German village!” It’s daft, but it had that can-do spirit, the clean-slate American impulse.

The strange new forms of the Streamline Moderne style worked their way into the nation’s cities, thanks to banks and Works Progress Administration projects and post offices, so the abstract style of the 1939 Fair wasn’t as jarring as the 1933 Chicago example. This was the way everything was headed. The Wonder Bread building will look like a Buck Rogers brothel, and that’s fine.

Alas, war. By the time we started building again, Moderne was anything but. Out with the serenely intellectual curves of the Streamline style, in with the boxy lines of the IBM mainframe. The World’s Fairs of 1962 and 1964 pushed back against the straitjacket of Modernism and displayed some wildly imaginative architecture. The Coca-Cola Pavilion in 1964 was like a Gothic church built for storks:

This thing looks like some alien machine that walks around the planet and eats people:

Not much of the ’60s World’s Fair architecture was influential. If it showed up anywhere else, it was the graveyard of bad architectural movements, the ’60s and ’70s college campus. But it was fun. You can’t say the 1962 Fair wasn’t as optimistic and future-yearning as its predecessors, because nothing sums up America like the shot at the end of “It Happened at the World’s Fair”:

Elvis shakes hands with a NASA recruiter. New Frontier, baby. We’re goin’ to the moon, and we’re gonna have a rocking’ good time.

——

Everyone who has a mild interest in the World’s Fair has a favorite they’d like to visit in a time machine. I’m torn. Maybe the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco in 1939, the one that gets overshadowed. Maybe ’62 or ’64, so I could see the world of my parents. Maybe 1893, where I could find myself next to a slight old man named Charles who had come from North Dakota. The temptation to tell him that his land was still in the family would be too great, though; can’t mess with the space-time continuum.

So 1939 it is. I’ve a good reason. One of the items I bought in the New York flea market was a small envelope that contained a “golden key.” They were given to people who stayed at a particular group of hotels. A car was given away every day, and one key would win it. My envelope is unopened. Whoever got it at the hotel never made it over to the underwhelming booth where you tried your luck. Maybe this key’s the one.

Thinking about World’s Fairs has always been a means of traveling through the land of the past. I look at the envelope and contemplate its mystery. The key slides in, hand in glove, and I hear the engine of America catch the spark and roar to life.

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