Downscaled Olympic torch relay held in Hiroshima amid COVID surge

The Tokyo Olympic torch relay began its segment in Hiroshima on Monday, but the event was downscaled with torchbearers passing on the flame at a park without spectators in the prefecture, which is under an emergency over surging coronavirus infections.The torchbearers gathered at the western Japan city's Peace Memorial Park near the epicenter of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing in World War II, as local organizers decided not to use public roads for the relay throughout the two-day event.On the first day of the event, Takayuki Sakai, a younger brother of Yoshinori Sakai, who lit the cauldron at…READ FULL ARTICLE