To appreciate the significance of the Tokyo torch’s arrival in Tehran, one must look back to the origins of the Olympic torch relay. The torch itself is rooted in the symbolism of ancient Greece, where fire was regarded as sacred and often associated with Zeus, the king of the gods. In Olympia, a flame was traditionally kept burning during the ancient Olympic Games.
The modern Olympic torch relay, however, began much later—in 1936, at the Berlin Olympics, staged by Nazi Germany. That year, organizers decided to link the Games symbolically to ancient Greece by carrying a flame from Olympia to Berlin. The idea was both theatrical and political: it tied the modern Games to antiquity while allowing Germany to showcase its power and organizational ability.
After the Berlin Games, the tradition of the torch relay continued, although with evolving meanings. At first, the torch was usually carried only within the host country. But by the 1960s, as the Games grew in size and visibility, Olympic organizers began to expand the scope of the relay. For the Tokyo Olympics of 1964—the first Games in Asia—the Japanese sought to make the torch relay a pan-Asian journey, crossing multiple countries along the route from Greece to Japan.
