Iran Press/ Asia: An Olympic torch was lit in the ceremony in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in the city of Hiroshima, the prefecture's capital. The event came in line with the cancellation of the Olympic torch relay on public roads in the prefecture amid the virus crisis.
The torchbearers gathered at the western Japan city's Peace Memorial Park near the epicenter of the 1945 US atomic bombing in World War II, as local organizers decided not to use public roads for the relay throughout the two-day event.
On the first day of the event, Takayuki Sakai, a younger brother of Yoshinori Sakai, who lit the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, was among those who carried the flame at the park.
Dozens of protestors on Monday took one of Tokyo’s busiest streets and called for the cancellation of the Summer Olympics, which Japan is determined to host despite a resurgence of coronavirus infections.
Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 was postponed for the first time in their history.
Tokyo 2020 became the first Olympics ever postponed in peacetime as the coronavirus wreaked havoc across the globe, claiming lives and forcing the cancelation of sporting and cultural events.
The Olympics have previously only been canceled completely during periods of World War - in 1916, 1940, and 1944 - but never suspended or postponed.
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