(Special thanks to @Libertad for some help in doing this)
The 1940 Olympics
The 1936 Olympics were considered both a success and a failure depending on the point of view. The IOC and the sports division of Comintern, Red Sport International (Sportsintern) viewed the games as a successful integration of the Soviet Union and the United Republics into the Olympics, with Spartakaids providing excellent training to bring athletes to the level of international amateurs. To many others, including the head of the American Olympic Association-in-exile Avery Brundage and the planners of the Berlin games, the Games had gone horribly wrong. Not only did Brundage fail to prevent the UASR from participating (preventing his own exile athletes from gaining prominence), but their Jewish and Black athletes like Marty Glickmann and Jesse Owens beating out German athletes had ruined the attempt by the Nazis to promote their racist, antisemitic ideals.
Regardless, Tokyo was chosen as the host of the 1940 Summer Olympics that same year, with Sapporo hosting the Winter Games. However, concerns arose over the outbreak of hostilities between Japan and the Republic of China the next year. The dominant Kodoha faction saw the Berlin Games as a model to promote the ideals of bushido and their titular Imperial Way and their vision of a Japanese lead pan-Asian alliance.
The lead-up to the 1940 Games saw similarly intense debates within the halls of the American government and Sportsintern on whether to participate. Already, Comintern was providing strong support for socialist factions in the Republic of China. Unlike with the Berlin Games, with the ongoing conflict in which Comintern was actively involved, it was felt that it wouldn’t be worth participating until hostilities ceased. Thus, the 1938 Spartakaid in Chicago (the last held before the events were cancelled with the onset of World War II), was less focused on Olympic training and more on public health promotion. The Spartakaids would be promoted by some as an alternative Olympics.
The Culture Secretariat, with the support of Sportsintern and the American Olympic Committee-Mainland, announced their boycott in early 1939. This was motivated both by the conflict in China and the focus on the build-up for war with Europe.
In the meantime, many other Olympic Committees announced their own commitment to participation. Manchukuo, which had sent long distance runner Yu Hsi-Wei to the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932, assembled a new, full team to compete in the Tokyo Olympics. The Japanese-backed “Provisional Republic of the Chinese Nation” under Jiang Jieshi set up their own separate Olympic Committee and was then invited by Japan to send a team to compete (the Comintern-backed Republic of China deciding to boycott), as did the de facto Japanese-controlled Dutch East Indies, marking their only participation in the Olympics. The Indian team ,at Japanese insistence, held their own flag (a tricolor flag with a spinning thread) for the event rather than that of British India, creating friction with the British administration (and even some in the Independence movement who opposed involvement in the Tokyo Olympics). The Philippines, an Olympic participant since 1924 as a US territory and now under joint British and Japanese protectorate status since 1934, also decided to send a team to Tokyo with the increasingly powerful Japanese lobby to the Quezon government playing an important role despite President Quezon’s initial refusal.
Brundage, seizing the opportunity, proudly announced that “American-occupied Havana” (a term conceived in the 1936 Games to distinguish them from the United Republics) would participate in the Olympics in Japan (this time around under the Stars and Stripes banner). Germany and Italy made similar promises, and urged the “Spanish State” to establish an Olympic committee and send a team due to Comintern-supported Spanish Free Soviet Republic joining the boycott (even organizing a “People’s Olympiad” to serve with the Spartakaid in 1939). This will be the only time the Falangist government participated in the Games. With enough participants, in spite of the conflict in China, the Games would go on as planned.
The Olympic Torch relay (innovated in the last games) was going to utilize a fairly unique method at the time for transporting the Olympic Torch:a non-stop flight aboard a Messerschmitt Me 261 Adolfine long-range aircraft, provided by Germany. The flight managed to be successful and the Torch was delivered safely.
Seizing on the precedent set by Leni Riefenstahl, a film was commissioned examining the set-up of the Games and the Opening Ceremony, emphasizing the austerity and prowess of Japanese industry. Kajiro Yamamoto and his young assistant director, Akira Kurosawa, were tasked with making the film.
Concerns resurfaced following Operation Teutonic and subsequent declaration of war by the United Republics in May of 1940, a few months before the Games were to start in September. There was discussion in the Reich’s Sports Office to withdraw, but ultimately it was decided that a strong showing might bolster international opinion as the invasion of the Soviet Union continued. More pressing, the shipment of American troops into Vladivostok could potentially disrupt the arrival of athletes. All athletes were made to go around Europe and the Soviet Union to prevent any accidental deaths. Canadian athletes were permitted to pass through Los Angeles to reach New Zealand to get to the Games.
The opening ceremony in Tokyo saw a rare appearance of Emperor Hirohito. However, still incapacitated from his assassination attempt, his brother Yasuhito, Prince Chichibu spoke in his stead. Yasuhito noted how fortuitous that the Olympics would come to the city on the 2600th anniversary of the ascendance of Emperor Jimmu, which saw the formation of the Empire of Japan. He then spoke of the long history and resilience of Japan, before segueing into a more traditional mediation on Olympic spirit. Following Yasuhito’s speech, the Olympic Torch was lit, starting the Games.
Without the presence of the UASR and the USSR (which had gotten the top two most medals in the 1936 Berlin Games), Nazi Germany got the highest medal count while the United Kingdom got second and host country Japan third. The The biggest success of the Games for Japan, however, was the propaganda value of showcasing the country and its successful rise as a world power.
The 1944 Olympics were to be held in London. However, in the four years since the last one, most of the participating countries had since become embroiled in war, so, much like in 1916, the Games were formally canceled, and London would be given the opportunity to host in 1948, if possible. *[WPA]: Works Progress Administration *[NBI]: National Bureau of Investigation
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