The 1964 Olympics Certified a New Japan

The preparations turned Tokyo into a citywide construction site. The author Robert Whiting, who was stationed with the U.S. Air Force in Tokyo in 1962, describes the pile drivers and jackhammers that delivered an “overwhelming assault on the senses.” Pedestrians went about with face masks and earplugs, and salarymen drank in bars protected by dust-blocking plastic sheets. Japan was just a few years out from becoming the world’s second-largest economy, and the 1964 Olympics were to be a pageant of economic revival and honor regained... More here.

A very interesting article.