Tokyo 1964

Nearly fifty years ago Tokyo hosted the Olympic Games.

It was the first time that the Olympics were ever brought to Asia, a huge occasion. Japan was set to host the games in 1940, but had to resign because of the Japanese invasion of China and World War II. The man who lit the torch, Yoshinori Sakai, was born in Hiroshima the day that the first atomic bomb struck land. 

Ninety-three countries participated in the games, however, South Africa, Indonesia, and North Korea did not compete in the competition. At the time this was a very large amount of competitors.

Judo and women's volleyball were popular games in Japan and were introduced at the games. Japan won three gold medals in Judo and the Japanese Women's Volleyball team took home the gold, with the final match broadcasted live. These games were also the first to be telecast internationally without the need for tapes to be flown overseas as they were for the 1960 Olympics four years earlier. Soviet gymnast, Larisa Latynina, took home the record for most Olympic medals (eighteen) which stood the new record until Michael Phelps broke it in the 2012 London Olympic Games. The women's pentathlon was also introduced. 

Although Japan's foreign policy was closely linked to the United States during the Cold War, the city of Tokyo hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics in the spirit of peaceful engagement with the entire international community, including the Communist states. The goals were to demonstrate to the world that Japan had fully recovered from the war, had disavowed imperialism and militarism, welcomed high-caliber sports, and sought to engage the peoples of the world on a grassroots level. Sports were kept entirely separate from politics. The event proved a great success for the city and for Japan as a whole, with no untoward incidents. Japan's foreign-policy was expanded to include sports diplomacy as the nation sent teams to international competitions across the globe.

Japan later hosted two winter Olympic Games, one in Sapporo in 1972 and one in Nagano in 1998.  The 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo was significant because it was the first winter games to be hosted outside of Europe or North America. 

Japan is set to host the summer Olympic Games in 2020 once again, after beating out Istanbul and Madrid. There is much buzz about the opening ceremonies, costs, and layout of the next games.