Kohei Jinno fans
out the black and white photos of his family posing proudly in front of
their central
Tokyo home, a house they were forced to leave ahead of the
1964 Olympic Games to make way for construction of the main stadium.
Now Jinno, 79, has to move again.The
public housing complex where he and his wife live, close to the stadium
and the site of his former home - currently a parking lot - is slated
to be destroyed as part of construction of a new stadium for the 2020
Summer Olympics, which Tokyo won the right to host again earlier this month.
"Fate
has not been kind to me. It may be great fortune for the nation, but
having to leave this place fills me with sadness," he told Reuters.
"I just feel that had it not been for the Olympics, my life would have been so different."
The
current National Olympic Stadium, which holds an almost iconic place in
Japanese hearts for being the site of the opening and closing
ceremonies of the 1964 Games, when Japan became the first Asian nation to host the Olympics, is set to be demolished in 2014 to make way for newer facilities.
FUTURISTIC VENUE
Its
replacement, a futuristic spaceship-like venue by Zaha Hadid, who
designed the aquatics center for the London 2012 Games, will have 80,000
seats compared to the current 50,000 and play a key role when Japan
hosts the Rugby World Cup in 2019.
Jinno,
who grew up with nine brothers, was born in a house that is now a
concrete carpark by the National Stadium in downtown Tokyo. After that
house burned down during World War Two, they moved to a home 20 metres
away, where Jinno ran a tobacconist's from a shop attached to the family
house.
Ahead of the 1964 Olympics,
their house and about 100 others were forced to move to make way for
the stadium and a surrounding park. The site of their home was paved
over for the carpark, the greenery that blanketed the area was cut down,
and a nearby river buried in concrete.
His
job gone, he was forced to wash cars to make ends meet, living in a
tiny room with his wife and two children. In 1965 he moved into a
municipal housing complex and was eventually able to reopen the
tobacconist's, which he still runs today.
Recently,
he and his wife were told they must move again, leaving the home where
they raised their children. Jinno reckons they have at most two years
left at the same address.
EVICTED AGAIN
"It's
like they're taking away the most precious thing I have after my
family," he said. "Because of the Olympics I'm going to lose the
community I love so much, the friends that have kept me going so long.
"In their place I'm getting uncertainty, loneliness and pain."
Tokyo
touted a $4.5 billion war chest in the bank for the Games and estimates
an economic impact of 3 trillion yen ($30.2 billion) and creation of
150,000 jobs.
Stocks rose after
Tokyo was chosen over Madrid and Istanbul on September 7 and property
firms, hotels and construction firms are expected to gain as a result.
Jinno,
who turns 80 next month, has no idea where he will move, or when. He
said two hundred families in the same complex, most of them elderly,
face the same dilemma.
"I wish they
wouldn't have the Olympics in Tokyo again," he said. "I can bear
getting evicted if it's just the once in a lifetime. But twice? It's
ridiculous."
REUTERS