Hiroshima Toyo Carp players pray for atomic bomb victims before a game in Hiroshima on August 6, 2015. The city suffered the world’s first atomic bombing, but for locals, baseball helped boost morale on the road to recovery. Photo: AFP via Getty Images Hiroshima Toyo Carp players pray for atomic bomb victims before a game in Hiroshima on August 6, 2015. The city suffered the world’s first atomic bombing, but for locals, baseball helped boost morale on the road to recovery. Photo: AFP via Getty Images
Hiroshima Toyo Carp players pray for atomic bomb victims before a game in Hiroshima on August 6, 2015. The city suffered the world’s first atomic bombing, but for locals, baseball helped boost morale on the road to recovery. Photo: AFP via Getty Images
Japan
Lifestyle /  Travel & Leisure

Hiroshima baseball team gave Japanese city hope after atomic bomb, and citizens’ cash kept team afloat in bleak early years

  • When the people of Hiroshima needed hope, they looked to baseball. A professional team formed in 1950, the Hiroshima Carp survived on public donations
  • Perennial underdogs apart from a few glory years, to city’s people their team is a monument to recovery from ashes of war as much as the Peace Park world knows

Topic |   Japan
Tanja Warwick

Updated: 11:00am, 6 Aug, 2020

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Hiroshima Toyo Carp players pray for atomic bomb victims before a game in Hiroshima on August 6, 2015. The city suffered the world’s first atomic bombing, but for locals, baseball helped boost morale on the road to recovery. Photo: AFP via Getty Images Hiroshima Toyo Carp players pray for atomic bomb victims before a game in Hiroshima on August 6, 2015. The city suffered the world’s first atomic bombing, but for locals, baseball helped boost morale on the road to recovery. Photo: AFP via Getty Images
Hiroshima Toyo Carp players pray for atomic bomb victims before a game in Hiroshima on August 6, 2015. The city suffered the world’s first atomic bombing, but for locals, baseball helped boost morale on the road to recovery. Photo: AFP via Getty Images
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