Robert Whiting (April 2008) – Yukan Fuji
When I arrived in Tokyo in 1962, working for the CIA as a 19-year-old member of the U.S. military, the city was an unsightly sprawl of ramshackle wooden houses, rickety shanties and cheaply constructed stucco-covered buildings that had mushroomed from the wartime detritus left by American B-29 Superfortress bombers.
Living conditions were primitive in most areas outside the main hubs, and both the harbor and the capital’s main rivers were filled with sludge from the human and industrial waste that poured into them. Drinking water was unsafe, with hepatitis a constant worry.
Decades later, Tokyo would be famous for its high-technology toilets, with their automated lids, music modes, water jets and blow-dry functions, all backed by an impressive sewerage system. Back then, less than a quarter of the city’s 23 wards had flush sewage systems, making Tokyo one of the world’s most primitive (and odiferous) large cities.
Most human waste had to be sucked out weekly from underneath buildings by kumitoriya (vacuum trucks) and either transported to rice paddies for use as fertilizer or dumped into the nearest waterway. Unsurprisingly, the city was rat-infested, and about 40% of residents had tapeworms. There were no ambulances, and infant mortality was 20 times today’s level. Burglary was rampant, illegal narcotics endemic, and it was considered dangerous to walk in public parks at night. Yakuza (organized crime gangs) were everywhere, their numbers at an all-time high.
What followed was a historic transformation as Tokyo’s urban infrastructure was rebuilt for the 1964 Olympic Games, carried out in conjunction with a government plan to double both the size of the economy and income per head by the end of the 1960s. More than 10,000 new buildings went up, including several 5-star hotels, along with a network of overhead expressways, a subway line, a monorail link between Haneda airport and downtown Tokyo, and a 250 kph Shinkansen (bullet train) between Tokyo and Osaka.
As the deadline for the Games approached, there was a frantic rush to finish on time. At night, after the city’s office workers had gone home, construction was ramped up. Traffic on the main thoroughfares was redirected and additional sets of air hammers and pile drivers were put to work. This went on until dawn, when the avenues were covered with temporary wooden planks and traffic resumed.
Most of Tokyo’s citizens put up with the annoyance stoically, using thick black curtains and earplugs to block out the glare from the lights and constant clamor. In an extraordinary example of public support, the city government mobilized 1.6 million residents to help clean Tokyo’s streets in January 1964. That is not a misprint.
When the Shinkansen started operations on Oct. 1, 1964 — nine days before the Games opened — the city was almost unrecognizable. Construction had halted, and glistening new buildings were everywhere. Smiling interpreters roamed the streets in special cars, searching for bewildered-looking foreign tourists needing assistance. I was constantly stopped and asked if I needed help to find my destination.
What followed was perfect. The Tokyo Olympics were the first Games in Olympic history to use computers to keep results, introducing electronic timing devices that are still in use. Such advances thrust Japan into the forefront of global technological development.
For Tokyo’s citizens, the success of the Games was doubly important because their city had been transformed into an international metropolis that would be a magnet for foreign tourists, businesspeople, scholars and others, as well as the setting for the 1967 James Bond film “You Only Live Twice,” a global smash hit.
The Games planned for Tokyo in 2020 have also been beset by problems. The runup has been plagued by embarrassing cost overruns, ineffective leadership, finger pointing at all levels and widespread doubts that a seemingly inept Japanese government can get everything ready in time. In March 2019 the president of the Japan Olympic Committee resigned, and was replaced, amid corruption allegations.
There have been construction delays because of a controversial main stadium design, 70,000 people were relocated to make way for the stadium and other facilities, and there was a major scandal over the official logo.
There have also been fears about the prospect of deadly mid-summer heat during the Games — scheduled to take place from July 22 to Aug. 9. In 2018, the temperature in late July hit an all-time record of 41.1 C, causing more than 60 deaths and leading tens of thousands of people to seek hospital treatment. In November 2019 the International Olympic Committee took the drastic (and mistaken) step of moving the marathons and race walks to the cooler climes of the northern island of Hokkaido (instead of to a closer, more appropriate and scnice spot like Hakone.) Some have urged that open water events and golf competitions also be moved because of the heat.
Now however, the overriding issue is widespread fears about the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Thomas Bach, the IOC president, has insisted that the Olympics will continue as scheduled, telling athletes in Lausanne, Switzerland, on March 3 that athletes should continue their preparations “with great confidence.”
His comments followed a meeting of the IOC’s executive board which confirmed that it remains committed to holding the Olympics as scheduled, in spite of suggestions by Seiko Hashimoto, Japan’s Olympics minister, that the Games could be moved to the end of the year.
Whether the Games go ahead on time may depend on the course of the coronavirus outbreak. It’s hard to imagine right now amid the panic over shortages of face masks and toilet paper and month-long school closures, that by July, the country could be smoothly hosting the Olympics but anything is possible.
The March Sumo Tournament in Osaka is being held before an empty auditorium as are the entire pre-season schedule of professional baseball exhibition games and the Natiopnal Spring High School Baseball Tournament.. Who’s to say the Olympic Games could not be held behind closed doors if absolutely necessary. At least there would be revenue from TV broadcasts to compensate for the loss of ticket sales and hotel bookings.
The virus may well disappear in warmer weather and if it does Tokyo will be ready to go. On a more practical level, Tokyo is still short of competent interpreters and lags behind in public Wi-Fi services that can be used by tourists. But the city certainly does not need reconstruction on the scale of 1964. It is already far more advanced that almost any other city on the planet, with the world’s best public transportation system and a wealth of high-technology intelligent buildings (45 new skyscrapers have gone up in the four year period ending in 2019).
Moreover, people have begun brushing up their language skills in preparation for volunteering as guides, just as they did during the first Tokyo Olympics more than half a century ago. Information assistants now patrol the central areas of the city on dicycles offering help to befuddled tourists in preparation for the great influx of visitors for the Games. “May I help you” may once again become the most frequently heard expression on the city’s streets. In addition, taxi drivers and train conductors have begun addressing foreign visitors in English.
Looking back at the problems ahead of the 1964 Olympics and the successful Games that followed provides a reassuring reminder of what this city is capable of. The difficulties that have bedeviled Tokyo’s preparations for its second Olympics are undeniable, but it would be unwise to bet against its chances of pulling off another historic Games.
END
UPDATE the 2020 Olympics were eventually postponed to 2021 and held in a bubble which ordinary Japanese were not allowed to enter. It was depressing.
Tokyo Junkie 