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From Hiroshima to the Covid, from the ashes of World War II to the battle against this also global pandemic, Tokyo's relationship with Olympism well exemplifies that transition. The Japanese capital was unable to celebrate the first Games that were awarded to it, in 1940, due to the outbreak of the conflict. When he was finally able to do so, in 1964, it was the capital of a country that found in the appointment an opportunity to raise national self-esteem, devastated by defeat, the disgrace of its army and the heinous effects caused by uranium and plutonium on Hiroshima. and Nagasaki.

For the lighting of the cauldron, the athlete

Sakai Yoshinori

, born in Miyoshi, 60 kilometers from Hiroshima,

was chosen on

August 6, 1945, the same day that Little Boy fell, the first of the bombs. The last reliever is always a secret, but the lighting of the Olympic flame, today, will take place in a ceremony marked by the covid, away from the color, sound and pomposity of the Asian stops that we already saw in Beijing. If in 1964 there were 83,000 spectators who saw the

Baby of Hiroshima

arrive at

the National Stadium, only about 1,000 VIPs will observe this time the lighting in a sober act, as the door of a house still in mourning opens.

The Olympic ceremonies became part of an unregulated competition, in which it is not the athletes who compete, but the organizers. Tokyo had planned to amaze the world by recreating the tradition of its past with the tools of technology heaven. Added to the calamities is the dismissal of the director of the ceremony,

Kentauro Kobayashi

, for anti-Semitic comments in his youth. He will hardly be able to the second, although more during the competitions. Today's ceremony will remain in the protocol of the parade and speeches, with a much smaller representation of world leaders than usual.

Emmanuel Macron

and American First Lady

Jill Biden

, are the most prominent.

The majority, however, will be representatives of ministries, sports administrations or presidents of national Olympic committees, as is the case of

Alejandro Blanco

.

Social rejection

The decision does not only have to do with the severe measures imposed by the covid, since the separation distances prevent choreography.

Also, and very especially, with respect for those killed by the pandemic around the world, around four million, and the majority rejection of the celebration of the Games by Japanese society.

The route of the flame has drew protests throughout the country, although individual respect for visitors is total, part of the Japanese idiosyncrasy.

In this sense, the presence at the ceremony of the president of the World Health Organization (WHO),

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

, who intervened, in Tokyo, before the 128th session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to support the Games.

The leader of the WHO did not speak of the suspension of the appointment as an option, but of "demonstrating what can be done when the appropriate plans are implemented."

"We are facing a litmus test," he said, and took the opportunity to demand, from the most global scenario that exists, the solidarity of the richest in the vaccination process.

A worker, with the Olympic Stadium in the background.GETTY

The ceremony, therefore, aims to give all the prominence to the athletes, who will carry out the corresponding parade, although the delegations will be more selective, since many of the participants are not in Tokyo.

The protocols require athletes to arrive in town five days before competing.

If members from more than 90 countries paraded in 1964, in the middle of the Cold War and with strong diplomatic tensions, such as the absence of China due to the participation of Taiwan, now they will do so on behalf of more than 200 national Olympic committees.

Instead of one flag bearer, the delegations will have two: male and female.

For Spain,

Saúl Craviotto

and

Mireia Belmonte

, both with four Olympic medals.

49% of the 11,000 participants in Tokyo are women.

HIROHITO AND THE SHADOWS

Emperor

Hirohito

was in charge of declaring the 1964 Games open, after the then president of the IOC,

Avery Brundage

, spoke

. Two very controversial figures. The former, who had been reluctant to surrender in World War II until the last moment, received immunity after the

Tokyo Trials

, the Pacific Nuremberg, while some of his ministers and commanders were sentenced to death or life imprisonment. The second had a past of collaboration with the Nazis discovered years after his mandate. On this occasion, likewise, the current emperor,

Narhuito

,

will reopen the appointment

, but he will not be accompanied by Empress

Masako

in the Olympic Stadium, built in the same place as the old National Stadium.

The decision of the Royal House has a double message: institutional support for a national project, but with discretion due to the contrary popular sensibility.

This has also led to very significant absences from the ceremony, such as the representatives of the large local sponsors, from the automobile giant Toyota to Panasonic, Bridgestone, NEC or Fujitsu.

According to one of its spokesmen, the Games have a "toxic effect".

The

sponsors

, however, have fulfilled their financial commitments, by contributing 423 million euros of the 1,186 million that the Games cost, some 2,000 more due to the effects of the pandemic.

Opening ceremony of the 1964 Games.REUTERS

Technology is what will try to compensate for the absence of public in the 43 facilities enabled for 33 sports, except those that are played en route, both through broadcasts and for athletes, who will be able to see images of fans on large screens . They will be the first Games available in 4K, including 8K for privileged Japanese, and follow-ups of the performances will be available in 3D. The sound of other Games will serve to create an acoustic atmosphere.

The medals that will be hung by those who access the podium, some 5,000, are made of recycled telephones and telephone sets, a message towards another plague: climate change.

From them they have been obtained to extract, they say, 32 kilos of another and many more of silver and bronze.

The

Baby of Hiroshima

could not hang any, because he did not participate in any Olympic event, nor in the one that carried the flame of hope.

At the time, condoms were not distributed in the Olympic Village either.

In Tokyo it will be 160,000, but with the recommendation to use them later, on the way home.

As the ceremony will make clear, Tokyo is a place to parade and compete, not for parties or sex.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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