As tens of thousands of athletes, journalists and officials get ready to pack up and leave Monday, Japan will be left wondering what it meant to host the Olympics during a pandemic.
TOKYO -- Was it the strangest Olympics ever, staged during a deadly pandemic, with no fans? How about the angriest, awash in protests and fierce opposition from large swaths of the host nation?
But does that really work in a country where thousands are still getting sick each day, let alone in other, even worse-hit nations that have sent athletes to Tokyo? Many here, while proud that Japan is on the verge of pulling off what many thought impossible or, in some corners, highly inadvisable, still believe these Games were forced on the country and that their real cost, possibly in lives lost, is yet to be paid.
Many were opposed, and that feeling persisted. But there was nuance, too -- a desire to put the country's best face forward, now that the inevitable was happening, and a notion that this spectacle could act as a salve. While it's true that some bars and restaurants continued to see drinkers flouting pandemic restriction rules, even as late as Friday night, many Japanese stayed home with their relatives -- and were delighted with the excuse to do so.
"It's unethical to proceed with such a big event, with more than 10,000 athletes coming to Tokyo, all situated in one area," said Masa Yamagata, a Tokyo resident. "We can't enjoy it anyway. We can't celebrate it."Along with the anger and fear, these Games had a nostalgic element for some older Japanese who remembered the Summer Games of 1964, when Japan celebrated its rebuilding from the war and the turbulent years that followed.
There was a tinge of sorrow, however, for Takemasa Taguchi, as the 83-year-old remembered Tokyo's celebratory mood in 1964.
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