Tokyo University Professor Kenzo Tange designed the base.
The pedestal was designed to suggest two hands pressed together at the wrist and bent back so that the palms point up to the sky. It expresses condolence for victims unable to satisfy their thirst for water, as well as the desire for nuclear abolition and enduring world peace.
The flame has burned continuously since it was lit on August 1, 1964. It symbolizes the anti-nuclear resolve to burn the flame "until the day when all such weapons shall have disappeared from the earth."
In the Flame of Peace Relay held each year, representatives of each community run through the cities, towns and villages of Hiroshima prefecture in an appeal for the abolition of nuclear weapons and improvement of survivor assistance. It is used to light other flames as a symbol of peace in various events. In 1994, it lit the flame of the Asian Games held in Hiroshima City.