Five Continents Peace Concert

Message on the Occasion of the Tokyo Olympic Games

While the whole world was suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tokyo Olympic Games were postponed for one year and the hard work of all those involved is immeasurable. As the significance of holding the Olympics is being questioned, this is a good opportunity to ponder the spirit of the Olympics.

In ancient Greece, the Olympic Games were an athletic festival dedicated to the god Zeus, and it is said that even battles between poleis (city-states) at that time ceased to be fought during the festival. At the International Athletic Congress of Paris in 1894, Baron de Coubertin's agenda for the revival of the Olympic Games was unanimously approved. The ideal form of the Olympic Games (Olympism), which was proposed as a way to "contribute to a peaceful and better world by improving the body and mind through sports, and by transcending the various differences in culture and nationality, and by understanding each other in the spirit of friendship, solidarity, and fair play," was groundbreaking in those days of imperial hegemony.

With the passage of time, the problems we face have changed and in the 21st century we are confronted by global warming, nuclear weapons, and now the COVID-19 crisis.

Is this not an opportunity to call out that such global-scale problems can only be solved when all the countries of the five continents agree to take part in this effort?

In ancient Greece, music was as essential to human development as sports were. Before the Olympic games, music was played.

In 2020, HPH had planned a five-continent marathon of peace concerts to pray for a peaceful world without global warming and without nuclear weapons for the children of the future. With the first concert in Hiroshima in January 2020, the goal was to perform Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City on May 9th with the United Nations Orchestra and soloists from Russia, China, the United States and Japan.  The concert has been postponed until 2021.

As it has been decided not to accept spectators from abroad for the Tokyo Olympics, it will be difficult to foster exchange and friendship with people from various countries. The Olympics were supposed to be held as a symbol of recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake, but now the unprecedented Corona virus crisis is dividing people's hearts. Let us mourn the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic, pay our respects and gratitude to the healthcare professionals, and call on people from all five continents to pray for a peaceful world without global warming and without nuclear weapons for the children of the future.  Let us reach out from Japan after its recovery from the crisis by calling out to the  world to participate in a Peace Concert for Reconstruction from the Coronavirus Pandemic.  Only when the world is united can peace be brought to earth.