1940 Summer Olympics — Games of the XII Olympiad, firstly scheduled in Tokyo, Japan, rescheduled in Helsinki, Finland, finally canceled due to World War II
The 1940 Summer Olympics were cancelled due to World War II, marking the third time the Games were abandoned because of war.
Key Facts
- Official designation
- Games of the XII Olympiad
- Original host city
- Tokyo, Japan
- Original scheduled dates
- 21 September – 6 October 1940
- Rescheduled host city
- Helsinki, Finland
- Rescheduled dates
- 20 July – 4 August 1940
- Cancellation reason
- World War II (third Games cancelled due to war)
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 forced Tokyo to relinquish its hosting rights, prompting the International Olympic Committee to reassign the Games to Helsinki, Finland. The subsequent escalation of global conflict into World War II made holding any large international gathering impossible.
The 1940 Summer Olympics, originally planned for Tokyo and then rescheduled for Helsinki, were ultimately cancelled in their entirety along with the 1940 Winter Olympics in Sapporo. This made them the third Olympic Games to be cancelled because of war.
Helsinki, denied its first opportunity to host the Olympics, eventually staged the 1952 Summer Games. Tokyo later hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics and the postponed 2020 Summer Olympics, held in 2021. The cancellations reinforced the vulnerability of the modern Olympic movement to geopolitical conflict.