Reflections on War and Sports: The Olympic Games in Troubled Times

This summer, the whole world was supposed to indulge in the excitement of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has postponed it for a year, and there is no guarantee that it will happen in 2021. In 1940, Tokyo lost the Games due to the expansion of the war. A look back at a time, like now, when the Olympics faced an impossible situation.

World War I, Great Kant Earthquake, Global Panic

Tokyo’s bid to host the 1940 Olympics originally stemmed from a desire to show that the country had recovered from the Great Kanto Earthquake. The Olympic Games were planned around the seventeenth anniversary of the earthquake, as well as celebrating 2,600 years since Emperor Jinmu’s legendary ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne.

However, what was supposed to be a celebration by the whole world ended up being an illusion. The various historical developments that combined to lead to the expropriation are full of connotations that seem to reflect our situation today.

The world suffered from great instability from the 2000s to the 1930s. World War I began in 1914, and at the end of that conflict, the influenza virus known as “Spanish Flu” spread from the United States to Europe and the rest of the world, due in large part to global troop movements, which led to many deaths in Japan as well. . It remained active for nearly three years, starting in 1918.

The Great Kanto Earthquake struck Japan on September 1, 1923. The earthquake devastated the heart of Japan and left the Kanto region, with its many wooden structures, completely devastated. The Japanese economy took a big hit, and with the capital jobs disrupted, the country slid into an economic recession that became known as “seismic panic”.

At the same time, the global economy in the 1920s was recovering from the demand for reconstruction after World War I. Overinvestment led to inflation, and the bubble finally burst. On Black Thursday, October 24, 1929, the New York Stock Exchange collapsed, causing the global financial panic of the Great Depression.

Against this background, Nagata Hidejiro, who was very keen on hosting the Olympics, became mayor of Tokyo in 1930. (Tokyo was a city, not a capital, until 1943). Originally a government official, he was mayor of Tokyo. At the time of the Great Kant earthquake. He resigned a year after the earthquake after a personnel case involving city officials, but he regained his position as mayor and sought to show the world the opportunities that Tokyo had risen again from the rubble. His idea was to hold the “Reconstruction Olympiad”.

The Olympic Games That Never Happened

However, the world was entering a period of increasing divisions. In the wake of the financial panic, the major players have tilted towards economic blocs, in an effort to protect their economies through trade protectionism. As international cooperation declined by the wayside, Germany, which lost the war, saw the rise of the Nazi Nationalist Party in force. Japan also sought to expand its economic sphere by invading China.

Japan awarded the Olympics at a general meeting of the International Olympic Committee held in Berlin on the occasion of the 1936 Games. But with the onset of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, the country, bent on military expansion, had little time to attend the Games. The decision to abdicate was made in July 1938. With only two years left to prepare, the Japanese government made the decision to cancel the event, bypassing the Tokyo City Presidents and the Olympic Committee.

Given the current situation, “history repeats itself” comes to mind. There is no actual war, but in recent decades we have seen the bubble economy burst in Japan, the global financial crisis of 2008, the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, the rise of nationalist leaders like US President Donald Trump, and global ones. High incidence of new Coronavirus. In the wake of all this, the question is whether or not the Tokyo Olympics can be held.

What the “Tomorrow Prayers” tells us by Sugimoto Sonoko

After its defeat in World War II, Japan was finally able to host the Olympic Games in 1964. There is a famous text by novelist Sugimoto Sonoko about watching the opening ceremony in the National Stadium on October 10, 1964: the essay Asu e no kinen (Prayers for Tomorrow), which Kyōd News first published it and was included in the publication Kōdansha Tōkyō Orinpikku: Bungakusha no mita seiki no saiten (Tokyo Olympics: World Festival as seen by the book).

“Twenty years ago, I was standing in this same stadium. I was a student. I was bidding farewell to students standing in the autumn rain, about to leave, forward … near the royal fund where the emperor and empress sat, Prime Minister Tojo Hideki of Japan stood, urging the students.” On eliminating the American and British enemies … I could not have imagined that after twenty years, I would see young people from 94 countries coming together in the same stadium. “

The Meiji Jingu Jain Stadium, which was the site of the farewell ceremonies for conscripts heading to war, was demolished after the conflict ended. This was the site where the National Stadium that would be the main site for the 1964 Olympics was built. It was rebuilt again before the 2020 Olympics, but the new facility was not properly used yet after the postponement, except on July 23, when swimmer Ike Rikaku broadcast a message. As part of an event one year before the Games delayed.

This is how Sugimoto described seeing a painful scene of students being sent to war and the magnificent Olympic Opening Ceremony in 1964.

“There is a connection between the Olympic Games today and that day, and this day is also related to the day. It makes me scared. Nobody can even imagine how today, with its good luck and bright colorful screens, will relate to our tomorrow. The only thing we can do is pray for this.” Today, today’s beauty should be part of our tomorrow. “

Peace Picture Gallery at the opening ceremony in 1964

Katakura Michio, the NHK director who was responsible for filming the closing ceremony of the 1964 Games, had a hard time deciding what kind of images would best end the first Olympic Games in Japan.

He went for advice to Oshima Kinkishi, who had graduated from Kansai University and was head of Japan’s delegation to the Games that year. Before the war, he was awarded a bronze medal in the triple jump at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. After that, he became the Mainichi Shimbun Berlin correspondent and sports writer. He introduced to the Japanese the ideology of Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, and was known as the “jumping philosopher”.

When Oshima asked him how he envisioned broadcasting the Olympic Games, Katakura definitely replied: “The Olympic Games is a festival of friendship and peace. It is not just an international sporting competition.” Oshima nodded. But Katakura remained troubled. Even if he can portray images of friendship, he does not know what represent images of peace.

At the closing ceremony of the 1964 Games, members of several national teams gathered to show their arm in front of the crowd. (© Gigi)

In preparation for the big day, Katakura produced a number of storyboards and made painstaking preparations. The ceremony began with the entry of flag bearers from all teams. But a little later, an unexpected scene appeared before him. Regardless of the country, the athletes began to mingle together, and swimmer Fukui Makoto, who was the holder of the Japanese flag, was raised on the shoulders of the foreign athletes. This was an unexpected scenario.

After the Games are over, Oshima appears to have told Katakura, “This is the thing that makes people say the Olympic Games are necessary for world peace.” He managed to shoot the “images of peace” he wanted in an unexpected way.

It has only been 19 years since the end of World War II. It was natural for people around the world – not just Japan, which achieved its birth from the ashes of that war – to celebrate the joy of peace.

Time to think about the basics

More than half a century has passed since then, and the Olympic Games have grown more in size than ever before. Bound by massive broadcast rights and sponsorship contracts, it’s not even possible to change the timing to avoid the sweltering heat. Organized nations make their preparations with political direction, and massive budgets seem to be a way for states to demonstrate their power.

In the difficult circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, the hard truth is that public opinion about the Olympics is tilted more toward “they should be canceled” and “it will be impossible to hold them next year as well” and away from the desire to keep them. It is unusual for the tide to turn this far.

This Tokyo Olympics was originally portrayed as a way for Japan to show it has recovered from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, but is now called “Victory over the Coronavirus Games”. When Tokyo earlier set out to win hosting rights for 2016, its unsuccessful implementation made it the “Environment Olympics”. Could it be that this ever-changing perception shows a lack of understanding of the true nature of the Olympic Games?

Looking at the host cities of the last Olympiad (including the planned cities), you can see the points in common with Tokyo. London 2012, Paris 2024, Los Angeles 2028. All of these have experience hosting the Games, but the relevance of their repetition is questionable. The trend in recent years has been for leading cities in advanced economies to pursue the Games as a means of implementing urban renewal programs.

Evidence of this can be seen in the way in which the completely serviceable National Stadium in Tokyo was demolished to build an entirely new stadium, while simultaneous redevelopment took place in the Aoyama area. The Tokyo Bay area has also been developed, with the new look intended to welcome foreign tourists, but things have not progressed according to plan.

With things as they are, it is time to think about the value and role of the Olympics.

In response to the era of globalization, countries around the world are looking to protect their own interests through greater fragmentation. The confrontation between the United States and China, Britain’s exit from the European Union, strained relations in East Asia between Japan and its neighboring countries. COVID-19 has exacerbated this situation, as the fabric of society has become fragmented.

Just as Sugimoto wrote, history is connected. The joy in peace that brought people around the world together is bound today and will be passed on to future generations. It is that enthusiasm that must not be broken.

The new national stadium is ready for the 2021 Games (© Amano Hisaki)

(Originally written in Japanese. Banner photo: Students sent to fight in World War II gather at Meiji Jingu Stadium for a ceremony in October 1943. © Kyoyoyo.)

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