This Is What The Tokyo Olympic Games Looked Like In 1964

Tokyo will host the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games for the second time in 2020. The 1964 Tokyo Olympics, which took place only 19 years after the end of World War II, marked the first time the games were held in Asia.

Yoshinori Sakai, who carried the Olympic flame, was born on Aug. 6, 1945, the same day the bomb exploded in Hiroshima. He was chosen to pay tribute to the victims, and to indicate Japan’s recovery from the war.

The Olympics also spurred a major building program that dramatically transformed Tokyo’s urban landscape. These photos capture the city's 1960s development and the vigor with which the games infused Tokyo.




This post originally appeared on HuffPost Japan and was translated into English.

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