Two para athletes that competed in Tokyo’s first Paralympics in 1964 say those games helped shift society’s attitude about people with disabilities in Japan.
Hideo Kondo, who competed in archery and wheelchair basketball as well as other sports in 1964, described his experience as life-changing, reported The Mainichi. The difference in how a Japanese para athlete was treated by the public at that time and how athletes from other countries viewed themselves and how they were treated by others in their homelands was eye-opening.
Kondo, 86, sustained a spinal cord injury at work when he was 16 years old. He was asked to compete in the games when he was at a rehabilitation facility in the hot spring resort of Beppu, Oita Prefecture.
Back then, he said, Japanese people with disabilities were treated as objects of pity. It was completely opposite for overseas competitors, who were viewed as empowering, not helpless and dependent.
“The sporting role models changed societal attitudes toward disability,” Kondo said.
As a Paralympian, Kondo lived in the athletes’ village with accommodations for people using wheelchairs or other specialized equipment. Due to that experience, he realized that accessible housing was the way toward independent living for those with disabilities.
“Sharing that experience is my mission,” he thought.
After the 1964 Tokyo Paralympics, Kondo moved away from the private sector to a local government job, where he became involved in the designing of barrier-free infrastructure for over 40 years.
Katsumi Suzaki competed in six disciplines in four sports including athletics and swimming at the 1964 Paralympics. The 79 year old calls the games “the starting point of my life.”
After injuring his spinal cord in a motorcycle accident at age 20, Suzuki said he lost any hope for his future. At that time, people with disabilities in Japan were often discouraged from seeking paid employment.
Participating in the games and seeing how Paralympians around the world were living “normal” lives, motivated Suzuki and he found a job at a prosthetic limb factory. He made it his goal to dispel fallacies, including the idea that workers with disabilities are not as productive as employees without disabilities.
“The Paralympics are where the flower of my life blossomed,” Suzaki said.
The Paralympic movement has seen many positive changes since Tokyo last hosted the Paralympics in 1964.
Today, disability rights, accessibility and inclusion are at the forefront of many conversations in the sporting environment.
The Tokyo 2020 organizing committee composed accessibility guidelines for the Olympic and Paralympic games, which applied to ramps, stairs, ground surfaces, reception desks, entrances and exits, doors, elevators and escalators.
Kondo and Suzaki think the impact and legacy of the Paralympics could extend far beyond the sporting arena and change Japan forever for the better.
“I hope these Paralympics spur accessibility improvements not just to make society better for people with disabilities, but for all people,” Kondo said.
Suzaki hopes to see “disabled people blending fully into mainstream society,” and is setting the example himself by being on a boccia team of players with and without disabilities.
