Tokyo’s 1940 “Phantom Olympics” in public memory

In the run-up to Tokyo 2020, media, museums, the JOC and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government often make nostalgic references to the 1964 Games, but Tokyo’s 1940 “phantom Olympics” seem to be forgotten. Is this selective remembrance part of a wider trend in Japanese society to be nostalgic about past successes and to ignore less pleasant parts of Japan’s history? Which place does Tokyo 1940 have in Japan’s historic memory today? With a focus on the forfeited Games of 1940, this chapter analyzes representations of Tokyo’s Olympic pasts in the city’s public sphere from 2013 to today.