By Donald Kirk
Amazingly, the Tokyo Olympics went quite well. The upside of dramatic events, medals and celebrations captured top headlines on the sports pages. There were few real glitches. The decision of American gymnast Simone Biles to pull out of events that were too much for her mentally and the defection of Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya as her coaches were trying to force her to return to Belarus for remarks she had made against the dictatorial regime added touches of drama to the spectacle. The absence of spectators from the stands did not diminish the glory of competing for medals and headlines before a global TV audience.
There was, however, a downside that raises questions. The first is whether a surge in COVID-19 cases in Japan was related to the Games and whether Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was right to insist on holding them in the face of widespread anti-Olympic protests. Speculation about the impact of the Games on the disease as cases spiked in Japan will go on forever, but the Japanese will always say they did their best by banning spectators. We've also been seeing increases in the virus in other countries, ranging from nearby Korea to the U.S. and Australia.
Obviously Suga made a gutsy decision to defy the protesters, to ignore polls and statements, and go ahead with the Games knowing that Japan would probably not get another chance at holding them for decades. Critics will still blame him for placing the spectacle of the Games over the humanitarian considerations of a pandemic that's just not going away.
Then there's another still larger question. What did the Games accomplish really in bringing about rapprochement, good-will and understanding among nations? That's relevant for South Korea considering the hopes before the Games that Prime Minister Moon Jae-in would be going over to Tokyo, sitting down with Suga in an atmosphere of good-will and understanding that might encourage resolution of longstanding issues and problems plaguing relations between the two countries.
Hopes for a Moon-Suga tete-a-tete ― not quite a summit but at least a friendly conversation ― were dashed before the Games had begun by a comment from Japan's second-highest diplomat in Seoul. The comment was not only stupid and vulgar but also showed the contempt with which Japanese officially, culturally, intuitively, view Korea and the Korean people. No end of apologies, nor the diplomat's recall from Seoul, can obscure his remark's confirmation of that historic reality.
Actually, looking back on Olympic history, for all the colorful drama of athletes waving their national flags in the opening and closing ceremonies and people from all over meeting, competing and shaking hands in displays of sportsmanship and good-will, the Olympics have by and large done little to bring about love, peace and understanding. The Berlin Olympics of 1936, in which Adolf Hitler watched the Black sprinter Jesse Owens win four gold medals, did nothing to stop World War II and the Holocaust in which Hitler's gas chambers killed 10 million people, including 6 million Jews. And the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo did not stop the killing that ensued between warring Balkan states and ethnic groups.
Now we are looking ahead to another Olympic spectacle, the winter Games in China six months from now. Obviously, Beijing has the facilities for staging hockey and figure-skating and curling and speed racing on artificial ice, but think of all the snow the Chinese will have to be generating on slopes quite far from the capital. The Chinese, so hell bent on piling up medals in the Tokyo Olympics, will be equally determined to put on a tremendous show while competing furiously for medals in winter sports in which they're not known to excel.
It would be nice to think that Beijing 2022 would foster good-will and amity between China and its harshest critics, including the U.S., Japan and India. Could it be that these Games, like the PyeongChang Winter Olympics of 2018, in which North Korea participated, will generate talks about peace and good-will as seen in all the summits in 2018; first between Moon and Kim Jong-un, then between Donald Trump and Kim? President Xi Jinping, as host, may entertain that vision, but then he'll also be showing off. Not everyone will be happy if Xi's goal will be to turn the Games into a display of his own personal power and his country's strength before the region and the world.
Donald Kirk (www.donaldkirk.com) writes from Seoul as well as Washington.
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There was, however, a downside that raises questions. The first is whether a surge in COVID-19 cases in Japan was related to the Games and whether Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was right to insist on holding them in the face of widespread anti-Olympic protests. Speculation about the impact of the Games on the disease as cases spiked in Japan will go on forever, but the Japanese will always say they did their best by banning spectators. We've also been seeing increases in the virus in other countries, ranging from nearby Korea to the U.S. and Australia.
Obviously Suga made a gutsy decision to defy the protesters, to ignore polls and statements, and go ahead with the Games knowing that Japan would probably not get another chance at holding them for decades. Critics will still blame him for placing the spectacle of the Games over the humanitarian considerations of a pandemic that's just not going away.
Then there's another still larger question. What did the Games accomplish really in bringing about rapprochement, good-will and understanding among nations? That's relevant for South Korea considering the hopes before the Games that Prime Minister Moon Jae-in would be going over to Tokyo, sitting down with Suga in an atmosphere of good-will and understanding that might encourage resolution of longstanding issues and problems plaguing relations between the two countries.
Hopes for a Moon-Suga tete-a-tete ― not quite a summit but at least a friendly conversation ― were dashed before the Games had begun by a comment from Japan's second-highest diplomat in Seoul. The comment was not only stupid and vulgar but also showed the contempt with which Japanese officially, culturally, intuitively, view Korea and the Korean people. No end of apologies, nor the diplomat's recall from Seoul, can obscure his remark's confirmation of that historic reality.
Actually, looking back on Olympic history, for all the colorful drama of athletes waving their national flags in the opening and closing ceremonies and people from all over meeting, competing and shaking hands in displays of sportsmanship and good-will, the Olympics have by and large done little to bring about love, peace and understanding. The Berlin Olympics of 1936, in which Adolf Hitler watched the Black sprinter Jesse Owens win four gold medals, did nothing to stop World War II and the Holocaust in which Hitler's gas chambers killed 10 million people, including 6 million Jews. And the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo did not stop the killing that ensued between warring Balkan states and ethnic groups.
Now we are looking ahead to another Olympic spectacle, the winter Games in China six months from now. Obviously, Beijing has the facilities for staging hockey and figure-skating and curling and speed racing on artificial ice, but think of all the snow the Chinese will have to be generating on slopes quite far from the capital. The Chinese, so hell bent on piling up medals in the Tokyo Olympics, will be equally determined to put on a tremendous show while competing furiously for medals in winter sports in which they're not known to excel.
It would be nice to think that Beijing 2022 would foster good-will and amity between China and its harshest critics, including the U.S., Japan and India. Could it be that these Games, like the PyeongChang Winter Olympics of 2018, in which North Korea participated, will generate talks about peace and good-will as seen in all the summits in 2018; first between Moon and Kim Jong-un, then between Donald Trump and Kim? President Xi Jinping, as host, may entertain that vision, but then he'll also be showing off. Not everyone will be happy if Xi's goal will be to turn the Games into a display of his own personal power and his country's strength before the region and the world.
Donald Kirk (www.donaldkirk.com) writes from Seoul as well as Washington.
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