1951 Asian Games - History

History

1951 Asian Games, thus Asian Games are considered to be a successor of a small-scale multi-sport event known as the Far Eastern Games, held in between a period of 1913 to 1938 in the different cities of Japan, Philippines, and mainland China. The First Far Eastern Games took place in Manila, Philippines in 1913, after the efforts made by the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation (PAAF). The Games were successfully organised for the next nine terms, but in September 1937, Japan invaded China after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident and started the Second Sino-Japanese War (which later became part of the World War II), thus the originally planned Games of 1938 in Osaka was cancelled and the Far Eastern Games were discontinued thereafter.

During the starting years of 1930s, efforts were made to organise a multi-sport event to include the countries of West Asia too, this gave a birth to "Orient Championship Games", which later renamed as Western Asiatic Games before its first inception. The scope of the Games comprised all the countries east of Suez and west of Singapore. The First Western Asiatic Games was celebrated in Delhi in 1934 at the Irwin Amphitheater, in which four countries—Afghanistan, British India, Palestine Mandate and Ceylon—participated. The decision was made to hold these Games once in four years at midpoint between the two successive Summer Olympics. The 1938 Western Asiatic Games were scheduled to be held in Tel Aviv, Palestine Mandate. However, the Games was cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II, and abandoned until 1951 Games, which also considered as the revival of Western Asiatic Games.