komazawa olympic park

"Sports may well be important, profitable and meaningful–in our lives, for society, for the nations of the world. But the minute we begin to think in those terms, sports cease to be mere sports.

...The Olympics are not an arena for sports; beyond that, they are an arena for international politics. The ultimate goal of Japan's participation in the Olympics is to make the world's great powers recognize the magnificence of our national power and citizenry, enhance our national prestige, and elevate our international standing."

– The Light & Dark of International Sports, 1936

On March 24, 2020, in light of the COVID-19 crisis, the International Olympic Committee and the city of Tokyo announced that the 2020 Summer Olympics would be postponed until 2021. The moment evoked memories of the years just prior to World War II, when Japan’s invasion of China scuttled Tokyo’s attempt to host the 1940 Olympics. Komazawa Olympic Park, in suburban Setagaya Ward, is the most prominent legacy of those “Phantom Olympics.” A symbol of the lengths to which Tokyo’s leaders have been willing to go in pursuit of dubious Olympic glory.

The story begins in 1930. Seven years had passed since the Great Kanto Earthquake, and Tokyo had mostly rebuilt itself. The mayor, Nagata Hidejiro, wanted the whole world to see the city’s progress. He decided that 1940 should be Tokyo’s year. That year, Japan would mark 2600 years since the founding of the imperial household by the legendary Emperor Jimmu, in 660 B.C. Nagata wanted to capitalize on the anniversary to stage two major international events in his city: a World’s Fair and a Summer Olympics.

Tokyo seemed like a long shot. There had never been an Olympics outside of Europe or North America. Japan and the International Olympic Committee, or IOC, worried whether Western countries would send their athletes so far away. Nevertheless, during the closing ceremony of the 1936 Berlin games, the IOC awarded the 1940 games to Tokyo. Nevertheless, during the closing ceremony of the 1936 Berlin games, the IOC awarded the 1940 games to Tokyo.

But the organizers of the Tokyo games were plagued with setbacks from the start. The mayor's office wanted to build the main stadium on an artificial island in Tokyo Bay, as part of a larger redevelopment that would include a new city hall. But the influential Japan Sports Association favored using existing infrastructure: namely, Meiji Jingu Stadium in Shinjuku. Eventually, the Tokyo Bay option was scrapped. The winds were too strong out there, and the artificial land couldn’t handle a stadium. (Fuma 58)

But Meiji Jingu Stadium had major problems too. In order to accommodate Olympic-size crowds, the stadium had to be expanded. That was a non-starter for the national government, which wanted to protect nearby Meiji Shrine from getting sucked into a construction zone. Even so, the organizing committee spent nearly 2 years pretending that the games would take place in Shinjuku.

Finally, in May 1938, plans were laid to build the main stadium and athlete’s village on what was then the Komazawa Golf Course. But by then, much bigger forces were threatening the games. Japan had been at war with China for nearly a year. At a meeting in Cairo, the president of the IOC warned Kano Jigoro, the founder of Judo and a major force behind the 1940 games, that Tokyo would have to relinquish the Olympics if the war in China did not end soon. A few days later, while en-route home to deliver the IOC’s warning, Kanno died suddenly. After docking in Tokyo, his coffin was taken from the ship in a five-ring flag.

Within weeks of the announcement that the Olympics would be held at Komazawa, it became clear that Tokyo no longer had the resources needed to implement the games. The war in China was consuming budgets and building materials. In the words of a historian, the Japanese government had to choose between building stadia or battleships. In 1938, Tokyo officially relinquished the 1940 games.

While construction on the Olympic venues never made it past the planning stages, the city did not let the Komazawa site go to waste. Shortly after Japan went to war with the United States, Tokyo declared the site an air-raid evacuation zone. In 1942, as food shortages worsened, the city bought the land and leased it out for farming. After the war, the Agriculture Ministry briefly took ownership of the Komazawa grounds after the war, until the city of Tokyo re-claimed it to build public housing for those displaced by the U.S. firebombings, as well as those repatriated from Japan’s former colonies. Nearby, the city built a public baseball field, hockey arena, and handball courts.

That community stood until the early 1960s, when it was razed to make way for venues for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. 143 homes were destroyed and replaced with volleyball, hockey, wrestling, and soccer venues. We’re not sure where these families went, but some may have ended up in the Kasumigaoka projects, which were built in Shinjuku to house those displaced by the new Olympic stadium. Those displaced from Komazawa joined a growing community of people, from cities the world-over, who have been forced out of their homes by Olympic mega projects.

After the 1964 games, the Komazawa venues were transformed into Komazawa Olympic Park

In 2013, Tokyo was awarded the 2020 Olympic games.A few days after the announcement, city employees descended on Meiji Park, just south of the old Olympic Stadium in Shinjuku. They warned the park’s homeless population that they should leave as soon as possible. Otherwise, they’d be evicted once construction began on the new stadium across the street. The residents of Meiji Park had seen this coming for a while. They’d been temporarily evicted from the park during IOC inspections several months earlier. The Japan Sport Council, which manages the National Stadium and rents the land under it from Tokyo at no cost, called in the police to clear out the residents of Meiji Park in January 2016.

A similar story played out in Shibuya’s Miyashita Park, which drove out its unhoused community for an upscale redevelopment project. At one point, the ward tried to sell Nike the naming rights for the new park, but reversed course after heavy backlash from the public. Later in 2016, the residents of the Kasumigaoka projects were evicted to make way for more Olympic construction.

Shibasaki Junko, evicted at 93 years old, told Yahoo News that:

Most Kasumigaoka residents were elders who lived alone. We were all friendly neighbors because we held events all year round: we’d make mochi, celebrate the spring festival, and have new years parties. But since we’ve been scattered by the city, none of us has any connection with our neighbors. Not one person from the city has come to check on me since the eviction. I’d go back to Kasumigaoka in a heartbeat if I could. It all feels like they’re telling us to die alone.

For all the ruthless efficiency they’ve mustered against Shinjuku’s most vulnerable, the leaders of Tokyo 2020 have proven astonishingly inept planners otherwise. As in 1940, much drama unfolded around the main stadium. Tokyo won its 2020 bid with a design by Zaha Hadid. But when estimated costs ballooned to $2 billion US dollars, the Prime Minister’s office had the project scrapped.

Shortly after Tokyo won the 1940 games, a newspaper editorial proclaimed that:

Thanks to its skill, sincerity, and various preparations, Japan has triumphed. The people of our nation must take infinite pride in this recognition of our talents and beliefs.

In response, the social critic Yamakawa Hitoshi penned an op-ed titled “The Light and Dark of International Sports”:

Sports may well be important, profitable and meaningful–in our lives, for society, for the nations of the world. But the minute we begin to think in those terms, sports cease to be mere sports.