Japan moves to the West, 75 years after the bombs

National Post, 07 August 2020

The transformation of the Axis powers into Western allies was one of the great political and diplomatic achievements of the 20th century.

Long-suffering readers know my quirky quadrennial observance of the games of the (insert Roman numeral) Olympiad. I mock the absurdity of national pride hinging upon obscure athletes who finish third — medal! — in events heretofore unknown. This summer I would have noted the inclusion of skateboarding and the historic de-marginalization of karate, finally recognized as being worthy of appearing alongside judo and taekwondo at the Olympics.

Japan will have to wait though until 2021 for the 2020 Olympics. Tokyo has seen something like this before. It was to be the host city of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 meant that few countries were keen on giving a propaganda victory to imperial Japan. They endured enough of that in Berlin in 1936, marking the third year of the thousand-year Reich. The Reich lasted only 12 years, but there were no more Olympics during its tenure.

Reconciliation would follow quickly after the war, with Tokyo getting the games in 1964. The Olympics did a goodwill tour of the Axis powers to show that there were no hard feelings, alighting also in Rome (1960) and Munich (1972). The reconfiguration of geopolitics meant that Cold War tension replaced the Second World War alliances; the Olympics would not get to Moscow until 1980, and not to Beijing for another 28 years after that.

Tokyo 2020 would have been an extraordinary moment, a witness to how history has accelerated in our time. Thursday, the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, would have been observed with a pause during the Games, and Sunday’s closing ceremony would have fallen on the Nagasaki anniversary.

Had the pandemic not intervened, the conclusion of the 75th anniversary commemorations of victory in the Second World War would have been hosted by Japan, which suffered the only wartime deployment of the atomic bomb.

Continue reading at the National Post:
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/raymond-j-de-souza-japan-moves-to-the-west-75-years-after-the-bombs