Olympics Opening Ceremony Director Fired Over Past Holocaust Joke

The director of the opening ceremony in the upcoming Olympics was fired on July 21 due to a past Holocaust joke.

In 1998, Kentaro Kobayashi did a comedic sketch where he says to his partner about paper dolls: “The ones from that time you said, ‘Let’s play the Holocaust.’”

“We found out that Mr. Kobayashi, in his own performance, has used a phrase ridiculing a historical tragedy,” Seiko Hashimoto, Olympic Organizing Committee President, said in a statement. “We deeply apologize for causing such a development the day before the opening ceremony and for causing troubles and concerns to many involved parties as well as the people in Tokyo and the rest of the country.”

Kobayashi also apologized over the matter. “I would like to apologize to those who were offended. I apologize for any offense I may have caused. I think it was a time when I couldn’t make people laugh as much as I wanted, and I was trying to attract people’s attention in a shallow way.

“As a person whose job is to entertain people, I should never make people feel uncomfortable. After that, I realized that it was not good for me, and I had a change of heart.”

Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Abraham Cooper said in a statement, “Any person, no matter how creative, does not have the right to mock the victims of the Nazi genocide. The Nazi regime also gassed Germans with disabilities. Any association of this person to the Tokyo Olympics would insult the memory of six million Jews and make a cruel mockery of the Paralympic.”

The American Jewish Committee also tweeted, “We appreciate the decision of @Tokyo2020
organizers to quickly dismiss Kobayashi as show director. Antisemitism has no place in sports.”

Kentaro Kobayashi’s joke in 1998 mocked the Holocaust, making light of the six million Jews who perished.

We appreciate the decision of @Tokyo2020 organizers to quickly dismiss Kobayashi as show director.

Antisemitism has no place in sports. #Olympicshttps://t.co/HTEEtioxwr

— American Jewish Committee (@AJCGlobal) July 22, 2021

The Olympics, which are scheduled to begin on June 23, have seen a number of officials resign over controversial remarks; for instance, composer Keigo Oymada, whose music was going to be used for the opening ceremony, was forced to resign after bragging about his record of bullying in school.

Keio University Economics Professor Sayuri Shirai told CBS News “that Japan’s largely insular, homogenous society has bred a lack of awareness about ethnic, religious, national, and gender issues.”