Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

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Project Name: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
Construction year: 1955
Website: www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp
Address: 1-2 Nakajima-cho, Naka-ku, , HIROSHIMA - Japan

Architect(s) : Kenzo Tange (www.ktaweb.com)
Project Category: Cultural | Museums

Latitude: 34.3917
Longitude: 132.452

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

The building of the Peace Memorial Museum, located at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima Japan, was built in 1955 to tell the story of Hiroshima before, during and after the bombing.

It has since been a main attraction for tourists visiting the city. The museum receives nearly one million visitors annually. The museum provides its visitors with information about major events that surrounded the war, Hiroshima’s role in the war, all the events which took place on the day of the bomb-dropping on Hiroshima as well as a number of memorable exhibits showing remains from the atomic blast.

Layout concept

The museum is split up into the East Building and the West Building. The East Building contain exhibits which provide historical information about the city of Hiroshima before the atomic bomb and the state of the city following the event. In particular, it highlights 3 of the few buildings left standing following the atomic blast. The Atomic Bomb Dome, Hiroshima City Hall and the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital were three buildings that suffered damage but not total collapse from the atomic blast.

Connected to the East Building is a hallway on the third floor is the West Building. In this area of the museum, everyday items exposed to the bomb were displayed and stories of individual victims are told. Some of the displays include: lunch boxes with the charred food remains, burnt clothing, a child’s tricycle and other personal belongings. The personal nature of the displayed items really makes the experience much more real and tangible.

Peace education programs

The Museum also provides peace education to groups of individuals. As part of their peace education efforts they will invite a survivor to come and share their story. While our group from McMaster was there, we had the opportunity to listen to the story of a female survivor. See insert. The survivor who shared her story with us was in grade seven at that time and was part of a student mobilization effort where students were called upon to volunteer to make fire-breaks within the city. It was while she was working on clearing the roads for such fire-breaks that the atomic bomb was exploded. Her story was very touching and made the experience really come to life.

Contributed by ArchiTeam