Hiroshima Toyo Carp, Sanfrecce Hiroshima, and Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra are three major professional organizations that Hiroshima, the site of the world’s first atomic bombing, boasts to the world. We conducted a questionnaire survey about what kinds of peace activities specifically professional organizations active in Hiroshima and with many fans can engage in, asking each of the organizations about initiatives for perpetual peace and abolishing nuclear weapons. All three demonstrated a willingness to consider these matters together with their fans and make them a reality. 

Hiroshima Toyo Carp　　　Sanfrecce Hiroshima　　　Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra

*Hereafter, the teams will be indicated using the colors shown above.

What is your stance as a team or organization with regard to “peace and abolishing nuclear weapons”?

The Carp team was founded in 1950 (Showa 25) out of so many people’s wishes for recovery and peace. We intend to do our best to remain a baseball team that local residents can be proud of, honoring those wishes. 

As a club team that is active in an atomic bombing site, our wish is to abolish nuclear weapons and realize worldwide perpetual peace through soccer. Every year, we arrange a game called the “peace match” where players and fans come together to express our gratitude for the peace of playing sports. 

Our motto is “Music for Peace” and that is something that we will continue to pass on as a universal theme. It would be a great joy for us if we are able to inspire a desire to “abolish nuclear weapons” in our audience by delivering the peace-loving music and heartfelt performance of the HSO.

What kinds of peace activities are you engaged in as a team or organization?

©2020 S.FC

Since the 2018 season, we have designated the home game that comes closest to August 6 as a “peace match,” where we communicated a message of wanting to abolish nuclear weapons and realize worldwide perpetual peace through soccer. We are planning to hold it also in 2021 with the help of Hiroshima Prefecture, Hiroshima City, the City Board of Education, the Peace Culture Foundation, and Mayors for Peace. 

When conducting regular concerts and other performances that we host, we aim to include program items that reflect our mission as an orchestra from Hiroshima, such as peace, requiems for the departed, and music with a pacifist spirit. We also hold an annual “Evening of Peace” concert on August 6, right before the day of the atomic bombing, as a joint project with Hiroshima City. 

Every year on the night of August 6 (when there is no game), mainly new players of the team and employees from outside the prefecture light candles all around the upper section of the second-floor seating (same height as the Atomic Bomb Dome) at Mazda Stadium. Through this, we create an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of August 6, both for the non-Hiroshima people looking out the windows of the bullet trains and for ourselves.

Please give a message as a team or organization active in Hiroshima

 It makes us happy when so many of you experience the HSO’s performances as well as empathize with and are moved by our performances that are filled with hopes for peace. Your support will also keep growing the HSO so that we can continue to live on forever and devote ourselves to our performances as an orchestra that is worthy of your love and pride. We hope to see your continued support. 

We want to keep telling players, fans, and all kinds of people  about the meaning of August 6 in Hiroshima through baseball.

～One Ball. One World. Grateful for the peace of playing sports～

[Peace events conducted together with fans]

Hiroshima Toyo Carp
Peace Nighter
August 7, 2020 (vs Hanshin)
Messages of peace broadcast on a large display. Players, coaches, and umpires wear a peace badge on their uniforms during the game. There is a delegation ceremony of lanterns floating, playing the national anthem used the piano that survived the bombing, and there is an area where you can make origami cranes. 
Hiroshima Toyo Carp website　 https://www.carp.co.jp/

©2018 S.FC
Sanfrecce Hiroshima
Peace Match
August 9, 2020 (vs Shonan Bellmare)
August 14, 2021 (vs Vissel Kobe) 
An exhibition of how the city looked after the bombing and a peace message board are set up inside the stadium. We also plan to have the players do a peace message relay. 
Sanfrecce Hiroshima website　https://www.sanfrecce.co.jp/

Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra
August 5-6, 2020
Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra: 75 Years after the Bomb, 2020 “Evening of Peace” Concert: Music for Peace
(2020 Project to Promote Strategic Artistic and Cultural Creation, commissioned by the Agency for Cultural Affairs; Project to Commemorate the 250th Anniversary of Beethoven’s Birth / 2016-2020 and beyond)
June 26, August 27, October 2, December 17, 2020
Discovery Series: 250th Anniversary of Beethoven’s Birth, Symphonic Series Hosokawa×Beethoven
December 10, 2020
75 Years after the Bomb: 406th Special Regular Concert
August 5, 2021
2021 “Evening of Peace” concert prayer
Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra website　http://hirokyo.or.jp/