For both Japan and the Olympic movement, the delayed 2020 Games may represent less a moment of hope for the future than the distinct possibility of decline
The exterior of Nippon Budokan in Tokyo’s Chiyoda ward on July 18, 2021. The country has changed vastly from that hopeful moment when the 1964 Summer Games proclaimed a new Japan, and the Olympics this time around have come to represent something different and not entirely positive; Image: Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times
TOKYO — Under crisp blue skies in October 1964, Emperor Hirohito of Japan stood before a reborn nation to declare the opening of the Tokyo Olympic Games. A voice that the Japanese public had first heard announcing the country’s surrender in World War II now echoed across a packed stadium alive with anticipation.
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