“a pride of Hiroshima!” The Red Three-Wheeled Truck Connecting Peace to the Future

The pamphlet that set Yamagata on her journey. Produced in 1949, when Mazda was known as Toyo Kogyo Co., Ltd, it was produced to promote overseas the release of the first new vehicle since the war ended.

Sendai-born Marina Yamagata, a second year student at Eikei University. This is her second year living in Hiroshima. Volunteering as a guide at Pride of Hiroshima Exhibition, she has been exploring the journey to recovery and the true meaning of peace.

The entrance to the Pride of Hiroshima Exhibition, on the second floor of Shimint Hiroshima in Hiroshima Gate Park. The exhibition features installations, video, music and graphics from creators with a connection to Hiroshima.

Communication Supervisory Department’s Takayuki Nukushina greets Yamagata at the showroom in Mazda HQ.

In the years immediately following the war, Mazda focused entirely on returning to pre-war business conditions and didn't have the capacity to produce new vehicles. But finally, four years after the war ended in 1949, Mazda announced a new vehicle: the GB type three-wheeled truck.

Areas that suffered from air raids generally began recovery by removing debris and transporting new materials. These areas needed vehicles to transport goods: compact trucks that could maneuver in tight spaces and be obtained affordably. Hiroshima had been reduced to scorched earth, and needed transport vehicles more than other regions. Naturally, Mazda wanted to restart manufacturing as soon as possible and produce as many trucks as possible. But under the rationing system, materials were hard to obtain and the steel collected wasn’t exactly the best quality. It must have been incredibly frustrating for those on the ground at the time.

Yamagata takes notes as she listens intently to Nukushina.

Mazda had been exporting three-wheeled trucks to China and other countries since around 1932, the year after launching the GA model. These activities were halted during the war, but with the launch of this new vehicle, overseas exports could finally resume. This pamphlet was created to support that promotional effort.

Mazda's three-wheeled trucks had specific body colors for each era. Early models were green, then changed to navy blue. The post-war GB type was also deep blue as standard. So why is the truck featured here red? It was a way to appeal to overseas audiences, a way of saying “Yes, we suffered devastation from the war and went through terrible times, but look, we've bounced back enough to build new vehicles!” It was an expression of pride in what had been achieved. And while red might have been chosen for marketing reasons, I think that the people back then chose the color red because it also represents their passion and determination to move forward.

“a pride of Hiroshima” was a powerful statement for the time. Why did they choose this message for overseas marketing?

I also think of red as a color that expresses passion and determination. And while red is a color that is closely associated with Mazda now, it probably wasn’t back then. Both the color and the message convey a spirit of adventure and confidence. The very fact that they produced this pamphlet tells us how motivated and driven they were to expand overseas.

Back then, red cars were extremely rare in Japan, almost nonexistent even for passenger cars. For practical cargo vehicles, plainer colors that wouldn't show damage were mainstream. In that context, the deliberate choice to use red and add “a pride of Hiroshima!” suggests that they wanted to send the message to the world that Mazda is working hard and determined to get back to where they were.

Shinichiro Uetsuki from Mazda’s Community Relations Group, General Affairs Department, chats with Yamagata at the Pride of Hiroshima Exhibition in Hiroshima Gate Park.

I’m from Sendai, which is almost the other end of Japan to Hiroshima, and I never thought I’d move here. But now that I’m here, I wanted to do something unique to the area. That’s what inspired my visit to the Peace Memorial Museum. I was shocked to learn what people had experienced back then. Sendai suffered major air raids during the war, but there’s no facility to tell the story in the same way. The experience left me feeling quite depressed as I headed home.

Later, I heard about the Pride of Hiroshima Exhibition from someone at university, and I first visited last year (2024) in around June, I think. That exhibition shows not only the hardships, but also the determination of the people who helped restore Hiroshima. The narrative at the entrance to the exhibition was especially moving. It made me realize what story needs to be told now, and the role I could play in that. I’d finally found the thing I could do which was unique to Hiroshima.

The narrative displayed in the entrance to the Pride of Hiroshima Exhibition. It describes how people worked toward rebuilding Hiroshima, living each day with hope for a better tomorrow, and gradually finding reasons to smile again. (English script of the narrative)

At the same time, not being a born-and-bred Hiroshima local, I wondered if I was the right person to talk about the history of tragedy from the war. Friends who grew up in Hiroshima have been taught this history since childhood, and every year undergo a special curriculum about peace. Then again, I also knew that this makes it hard for some locals to talk about the subject. Perhaps there’s an advantage to coming here from elsewhere, bringing a perspective that others don’t have. That’s when I began to realize it was okay to stay true to my desire to share the message I wanted to convey.

Pride of Hiroshima Exhibition visitors are often from outside Hiroshima, or are relatively new to the area, and they show tremendous interest in the topic. I think that those who’ve grown up in Hiroshima sometimes feel it’s not a topic that can be approached lightly, or that it’s a cross we have to bear. But really, the peace of 80 years ago and the peace of today face different challenges and different opponents. In 2025, humanity’s peace lies in tackling broader social issues such as the environment, population issues, inequality, and gender.

I believe that Hiroshima still has an important role as the City of Peace, but need to consider what peace looks like today, and what pride means now. These concepts mean different things to different people, so we need to figure out what message we can actually send.

You know, it was actually Nukushina and I who first discovered this pamphlet.

Really!? How did it happen?

It was about 10 years ago. We were launching a project to create a centennial history for Mazda’s 100th anniversary in 2020. We began by collecting materials from various departments—catalogs, pamphlets, documents and the like. That's when we came across this pamphlet. It was the wording, “a pride of Hiroshima!”, that really caught my attention. Pride is such a powerful word. I was curious why they chose it, and what they meant by it.

So, we began digging into the history. What happened exactly? What is this “pride” that they refer to? I was particularly intrigued by the use of “a” instead of “the.” It suggested that there were multiple sources of pride, and this was one of them. I began to consider what kind of pride might have existed in 1949, when this was produced.

That’s so interesting. I wanted to visitors to understand the intention behind that phrase, and that’s why I proposed restoring the pamphlet, so that visitors could actually hold it. Hearing your story makes me so happy and gives extra meaning to restoring this pamphlet. I don't know if it'll be years or decades from now, but I'm convinced future generations need to see this, to understand what it really meant.

I believe each person held their own personal pride for Hiroshima. That's what I think the “a” represents. That’s just as true for Mazda is it was for the other companies, ANDERSEN Co., Ltd., Otafuku Sauce Co., Ltd, Hiroshima Electric Railway Co., Ltd., Hiroshima Bank, Ltd., everyone involved in the Pride of Hiroshima Exhibition.

I think it was that same spirit of pride that united everyone when it came to rebuilding the city. Everyone was at rock bottom, so they came together as one while each accepting their own circumstances. Eighty years ago, they managed to achieve that unity.

That’s why those of us living today need to face today's social challenges and work together toward peace. For me, true recovery is when people can see a future from where they stand. When anyone, no matter their situation, can see a path forward.

To be honest, I’m struggling with a dilemma. We talk about all this, but how much can Mazda actually do as a company? Our purpose at Mazda is “enriching life-in-motion for those we serve,” but what does that mean when we’re dealing with all kinds of different people? At our core we’re a human-centric company, putting people first in everything we do.

But I want us to do more than just make cars. I want us to build better connections with the community to tackle social issues. That’s why when the Mazda 100th anniversary project wrapped up in 2020, I asked to transfer from PR to the Community Relations Group, which is responsible for community engagement activities.

As a Mazda employee and as an individual, I want to build connections in the community to work with people in Hiroshima and find solutions to regional problems. I want to do whatever I can now, to make sure this city is still thriving in 100 years’ time.

It’s my hope that the Pride of Hiroshima Exhibition isn’t just a place to learn about the past, but somewhere that inspires visitors to think about their own future.

Talking with you today, I feel that peace is about each of us having pride. Maybe that’s what “a” pride means today. You can’t have peace without pride. If you’re not happy in yourself, you can’t think about helping others—you just wouldn't have it in you. That’s why I need to hold onto my own pride.

I still have days where I wonder who I am, where I don't know what I want to do or what I'm even capable of. But since coming to Hiroshima, I can see a future where I might help someone. I don't know when, maybe years from now, but I want to grow into someone who has something real and meaningful to offer.