Hiroshima's Torch Relay for Asian Games Celebrates Peace and Unity

In the fading heat of an August evening in Hiroshima, a new sporting flame was born.

On Thursday, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park — a place etched into the world’s memory by war — became the starting point for a torch relay aimed at celebrating sport and unity ahead of the Asian Games.

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui stepped forward first. From the city’s Flame of Peace, which burns in memory of those killed in the Aug. 6, 1945 U.S. atomic bombing, he lit a ceremonial torch. That small burst of fire carried decades of history.

Waiting beside him was Hajime Moriyasu, head coach of the Japanese men’s national soccer team and a man whose own football journey began in Hiroshima. A lighting rod in his hands was touched to the mayor’s torch, the flame jumping across. Moments later, it was transferred again, this time into a golden lantern — a simple object turned into a symbol set to travel.

Moriyasu used the occasion to speak not about tactics or formations, but about purpose. “I think that sports have the power of binding different values and cultures together,” he said, looking ahead to the athletes who will soon gather. He added that he wants those competing at the Asian Games “to compete with all their strength while wishing for peace.”

From a city rebuilt from devastation, the message was clear: performance and peace can share the same stage.

The flame will now form part of the torch relay for the Asian Games, the quadrennial event that will bring athletes from across the continent to Japan. This year’s edition will be held mainly in Aichi Prefecture in central Japan, running from Sept. 19 to Oct. 4.

A lantern lit in Hiroshima will help open it. The question now is how far that call for unity and peace can carry once the Games begin.