Sports, Politics and the Olympics

The Summer Olympics in 1964 were held in Tokyo, Japan. Japan which had been a country devoted to militarism and imperialism for decades was now hosting the Olympics. Japan, which had been responsible for starting the Pacific's World War II wanted to establish themselves as a peaceful country devoted to creating new strong foreign relations and a devotion to international sport. Another reason was to create pride in their Country. Japan had not always been interested in Sports as a mechanism for both foreign relations and national pride. Bringing the Olympics to their home country created more support and more interest in Sports.  Besides Japan's strategy at becoming more known as a peaceful country, South Africa was a nation banned because of their apartheid laws. Apartheid was still very much alive in South Africa and because of this they were banned from competing in the 1964 games. I believe that there are two of Sage & Eitzen's political uses of sport evident here. The first is using Sports as a vehicle for change in society. Banning South Africa from the Olympics exposed their out-dated and disgusting societal structure to the rest of the world and also put pressure on them to consider lifting the apartheid laws. And although the this might not have caused them to change the laws right away it began to show that the whole world was against them regarding apartheid. The second use I would consider as a part of this Olympic games would be 'Using sport as a propaganda vehicle". Most often the word propaganda has a negative undertone, however in Japans case I believe that the propaganda they used was very beneficiary both for Japan and the rest of the world. They proved themselves to be a country capable of hosting the rest of the world for a major event despite their image as enemies in the past. Also these games were an attempt to show the people of Japan the changes that has taken place and perhaps to create more pride in a country that had been so war torn recently.

"Sport is pure and devoid of political interference"
This quote is 100% untrue. Especially in modern day sports. There is no need to look far for research because Sage and Eitzen explain the connection of politics and sport. Throughout the past hundred or so years international sporting events have been used politically whether to make a change worldwide, to put pressure on enemies, to create national pride and even to make poorer citizens forget about their problems for a while. examples of Sage and Eitzen's political strategies can be seen across several olympics. sport has been used for societal changes very often with boycotts and statements being made by victorious athletes (black power symbol in mexico city etc.). Often times these sporting events promote peace, and politics is the number one tool for creating peace. Also when looking at the Communist and Nazi games we can see several example of political propaganda to represent the communist and Nazi values as acceptable and successful. even more evidence of Political presence in sport is the fact that there are so many stakeholders involved in America's major leagues today (NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB) that it seems as though it is more politics than pure sport.