The 1940 Winter Olympics, which would have been officially known as the V Olympic Winter Games, were to be celebrated in 1940 in Sapporo, Japan, but the games were eventually canceled due to the onset of World War II. Sapporo was selected to be the host of the fifth edition Winter Olympics scheduled February 3-12, 1940, but Japan gave the Games back to the IOC in July 1938, after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. Sapporo subsequently hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics.