Hiroshima Lights Torch for Asian Games Relay

In the city that knows the cost of war better than most, a sporting flame was born.

On Thursday in Hiroshima, a ceremony to light the torch for the upcoming Asian Games relay unfolded at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, tying one of Asia’s biggest sporting events to one of its most solemn sites.

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui and Japanese men’s national soccer team head coach Hajime Moriyasu stood at the heart of the event. Matsui drew the fire from the Flame of Peace, the memorial blaze dedicated to the victims of the Aug. 6, 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of the city. From that eternal symbol, he lit a torch.

Moriyasu stepped forward. A lighting rod in his hand caught the fire from Matsui’s torch. The flame, once a reminder of unimaginable loss, moved again—this time into sport’s global ritual. It was then transferred carefully into a golden lantern, the new vessel for a journey that will stretch far beyond Hiroshima.

For Moriyasu, the moment carried a personal weight. He launched his career as a corporate and professional footballer in Hiroshima before rising to lead the national team. Now he stood back in the city where it began, linking his sport to its history.

“I think that sports have the power of binding different values and cultures together,” he said at the ceremony. He added that he wants athletes heading to the Asian Games “to compete with all their strength while wishing for peace.”

The flame will now serve as a symbolic starting point for the Asian Games torch relay ahead of the quadrennial event, which will be staged mainly in Aichi Prefecture in central Japan from Sept. 19 to Oct. 4.

From a city scarred by conflict to a tournament built on competition, the same fire moves on—carrying a message every bit as important as the medals at stake.