It was in 1936 that the I.O.C. granted Tokyo the honour of hosting the 1940 Games. Just behind those in BERLIN. History has shown that in this case the I.O.C. had kept quite far from international political activity. In 1937, Japan, invading CHINA, gave up on organizing the Olympic Games. While the 1956 Games were the first to be held in the southern hemisphere, the 1964 Games were the first to be held on the Asian continent, and this was of more symbolic significance. Tokyo marks the massive entry into Olympic history of newly independent countries.