TOKYO – The torch relay was not always a fixture of the modern Olympics, which began in 1896. The relay tradition started at Adolph Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympics — the Games of the XI Olympiad — and was the brainchild of Carl Diem, who was the head of the organizing committee.
The Tokyo Olympic relay is scheduled to begin its Japan leg on March 26 in northeastern Fukushima prefecture. Tony Perrottet, in his 2004 book “The Naked Olympics” — published to coincide with the 2004 Athens Olympics — captured the paradox of the Nazi regime appropriating the relay. “Ironically, considering its repellent origins, the torch race has come to symbolize international brotherhood today, and remains a centerpiece of our own pomp-filled Olympic opening