Olympics Tourch Pictures

The first Olympic torch relay was organised by the Nazis for the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. The regime used fire to connect symbolically the Third Reich with ancient Greece, which saw light as a emblem of purity.

After the Second World War, the concept of an Olympic torch relay was reprised for the 1948 Games in London. During what was known as the 'relay of peace', the Olympic flame was carried by an Italian marksman through the streets of Bari on its way to London.

Yoshinori Sakai, nicknamed the 'Hiroshima baby', was born in the city on the day the atomic bomb was dropped. He was chosen to light the cauldron at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games.