1940 Tokyo Olympics

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MurocFlight
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1940 Tokyo Olympics

#1

Post by MurocFlight » 16 Jul 2009, 17:58

As we all know, the planned Tokyo Olympics for 1940 never happened because of the war. I understand there was indeed much planning for it prior to 1937-38. Is there any good information out there on these plans and pictures of proposed facilities and other information? Another problem was that no one had yet heard the Emperor's voice as he was supposed to open the games as per tradition. How would that been worked out?

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Peter H
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Re: 1940 Tokyo Olympics

#2

Post by Peter H » 17 Jul 2009, 02:42

http://www.joc.or.jp/english/historyjap ... id.html#02
The first Olympics that Japan succeeded in winning the right to host were the 12th Olympic Games of 1940. This was a special year for Japan as it marked the 2,600th anniversary of the accession of Emperor Jimmu, and the Olympics were planned as part of the celebrations for this. At the 35th IOC Session held in Berlin in August 1936, Tokyo was involved in a straight contest with Helsinki and won the final vote by 36 votes to 27. In those days, it was possible to stage the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics in the same country in the same year, so Japan also applied to hold the 5th Winter Olympic Games in Sapporo. This bid was conditionally approved at the 36th IOC Session in Warsaw in June 1937 and received final approval at the 37th IOC Session in Cairo in March 1938.

However, as the Sino-Japanese War, which broke out in July that year, spread and became a drawn-out campaign, there was an international outcry against staging the Olympics in a nation at war. Numerous dissenting voices also appeared in Japan. In July 1938, the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee was finally forced to make the anguished decision to forego both the Tokyo and Sapporo Olympics.
More here:
http://www.joc.or.jp/english/historyjap ... oro02.html
http://www.joc.or.jp/english/historyjap ... oro03.html



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Peter H
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Re: 1940 Tokyo Olympics

#3

Post by Peter H » 17 Jul 2009, 02:58

http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/paper/collinss.html
The first problem was the location of the Olympic Stadium. When Tokyo submitted its bid, it notified the IOC that the central stadium would be located in the Outer Gardens of the Meiji Shrine. When Baillet-Latour visited Tokyo, he was deeply impressed by the serene beauty of that site. But after Tokyo had been chosen, the Home Ministry and the Shrine Bureau objected to that plan, claiming that the boisterous stadium would disturb the sanctity of the gardens dedicated to the spirits of the Meiji Emperor and his wife. After a long debate, which dragged on for two years, the government decided, contrary to the wishes of the IOC president, to construct the central stadium in the Komazawa district of the capital ..
It appears some buildings were completed--the Toda rowing course,the Shibaura cyclodrome,and the large Dai-Itchi Hotel.

I think this photo from 1938 shows the Toda rowing course
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MurocFlight
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Re: 1940 Tokyo Olympics

#4

Post by MurocFlight » 17 Jul 2009, 03:14

I have read that review and I wonder how they would have worked out having the Emperor open the Games. Perhaps Hirohito would have made that call himself by breaking the Imperial silence. Also, the 1940 Winter Games were to have been in Sapporo, Hokkaido.
There was to have been a huge 100,000 spectator stadium across from the smaller Meiji Stadium according to organizer's plans complete with an Imperial enclosure and other public facilities.

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Sewer King
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Re: 1940 Tokyo Olympics

#5

Post by Sewer King » 17 Jul 2009, 05:16

After the decision for Tokyo as the site of the 1940 Olympic Games, Hitler had had the idea that he could return them to Germany in 1944 and in time make it their permanent home. (Albert Speer's Inside the Third Reich: a Memoir)

-- Alan

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