Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, City Of Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum is located in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, in central Hiroshima, Japan. It was established in August 1955 with the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Hall (now the International Conference Center Hiroshima). The museum exhibit presents the facts of the atomic bombing, with the aims of contributing to the abolition of nuclear weapons throughout the world, and of promoting world peace. It is the most popular of Hiroshima’s destinations for school field-trips from all over Japan and for international visitors, too. 53 millions people had visited the museum from opening on 1955 through 2005. The number of visitors are over one million people per year. The architect of the main building was Kenzo Tange.

According to the introduction in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum’s English guide: "The Peace Memorial Museum" collects and displays belongings left by the victims, photos, and other materials that convey the horror of that event, supplemented by exhibits that describe Hiroshima before and after the bombings and others that present the current status of the nuclear age. Each of the items displayed embodies the grief, anger, or pain of real people. Having now recovered from the A-bomb calamity, Hiroshima’s deepest wish is the elimination of all nuclear weapons and the realization of a genuinely peaceful international community."

To facilitate education, the museum was renovated in 1994 and is now divided into two sections.

The East Wing — the newest addition — explains the history of Hiroshima City before the bomb, development and decision to drop the bomb, the lives of Hiroshima citizens during World War II and after the bombing, and ends with information about the nuclear age and efforts for international peace. Included in this section is a model showing the damage done to the city.

The West Wing, which was part of the old museum, concentrates on the damage of the bomb. Sections include Material Witness, which shows clothing, watches, hair, and other personal effects worn by victims of the bomb; Damage by the Heat Rays, a section that looks at what happened to wood, stone, metal, glass, and flesh from the heat; Damage by the Blast, focusing on the destruction caused by the after shocks of the blast, and Damage by the Radiation which goes into details about the health effects suffered by humans.

Posted by tomcosgrave on 2012-08-20 22:32:20

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