Hiroshima Flame Lights Up Asian Games Torch Relay

In the city where a single flash once changed the world, a new flame was born for sport.

On Thursday in Hiroshima, the torch relay for the upcoming Asian Games began with a solemn flame-lighting ceremony at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, blending the memory of war with the hope of peaceful competition.

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui and Japanese men's national soccer team head coach Hajime Moriyasu stood at the heart of the event. Matsui drew fire from the Flame of Peace, the monument that burns in honor of those killed in the U.S. atomic bombing of Aug. 6, 1945. From that eternal flame, he lit a torch.

Moriyasu stepped forward. The lighting rod in his hands caught the fire from Matsui’s torch, a quiet handover that carried more weight than any pre-match kickoff. The flame was then carefully transferred into a golden lantern, its glow destined to travel as a symbol of unity across the region.

For Moriyasu, the moment was deeply local as well as national. He began his career as a corporate and professional player in Hiroshima, and here he was again, representing Japanese sport on ground he knows intimately.

“I think that sports have the power of binding different values and cultures together,” he said at the ceremony. “I want athletes (who are set to participate in the Asian Games) to compete with all their strength while wishing for peace.”

The message was simple. The setting made it impossible to ignore.

The Asian Games, held every four years, will take place mainly in Aichi Prefecture in central Japan from Sept. 19 to Oct. 4. By then, this Hiroshima flame will have done its work—carrying a city’s history into a continental festival of sport, asking every athlete who sees it what they choose to play for.