1964 Tokyo Olympics Torch: Symbol of Post-War Japan's Triumph

1964 Tokyo Olympics Official torch, used in the torch relay. Manufactured by Nippon Light Metal Co., the bowl is engraved 'XVII Olympiad Tokyo 1964' with a set of Olympic rings, and the lower portion of the cylinder bears the Tokyo Games logo and reads 'Showa Kaseihin Co., Ltd., 3?1964.' The Olympic torch was carried for 51 days by 870 runners for a total of 26,065 kilometers. Designed on the principle of the coal-mine safety lamp, the Tokyo Olympic torch was filled with priming powder and fumigant, a two-component ignition material that needed to be wind and rain resistant, and which could both easily ignite and extinguish. Its effect was similar to that of a flare. Although a typhoon and various aeroplane issues caused a one-day delay late in the schedule, the triumphant final relay by Yoshinori Sakai through Tokyo's National Olympic Stadium on October 10, 1964, served as a defining moment for a still healing post-war Japan. This torch beautifully represents the moment the fifth ring of the Olympiad touched down on Asian soil. Australian athletes have competed in every Summer Olympic Games. Our 243 competitors, 203 men and 40 women, took part in 133 events in 19 sports and ranked 8th overall in the final medal tally with 6 Gold, 2 Silver & 10 bronze. At the Tokyo Games, Dawn Fraser became the first of only three swimmers in Olympic history (Krisztina Egerszegi of Hungary and Michael Phelps of the United States being the two others) to have won individual gold medals for the same event at three successive Olympics (100 metres freestyle, 1956, 1960, 1964).