TOKYO – Yoshinori Sakai was born in Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city.
Just over 19 years later, he ran with the Olympic flame into the national stadium, left the cinder track, and jogged up a long flight of flower-lined stairs to reach the top.
Wearing a white singlet with the rising sun emblem on his chest, he held the torch high in his right hand, faced the cauldron and lowered the flame to set off a ball of fire that signaled Tokyo's 1964 Olympics were set to begin — and Japan was back from the ashes of World War II.Sakai died almost six years ago and, though a world-class runner, he never competed in the Olympics.