The Hiroshima Peace Memorial

The Hiroshima Peace Memorial website has a wide variety of information about the bombing of Hiroshima and its effects. Viewers can learn some about Japan during the war and the events that led up to the creation of “Little Boy,” the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6^th 1945. There are guides to the exhibits in the museum and the layout of the museum. There is an exhibit on the recovery of Hiroshima after the war, which

The site home to all sorts of anti-nuclear advocacy material. There are assorted messages against nuclear weapons scattered across the site and there is a section on the “peace declarations” issued by mayors of Hiroshima every year on August 6^th. These messages started out as broad calls for worldwide peace and understanding, but have come to include include to calls for the elimination of nuclear weapons and topical remarks- in 1965 there was criticism of the Vietnam War and 1991 featured a declaration of regret over Japanese colonial aggression.

There's a “kids section” that includes a simplified guide to different types of radiation and the story of the atomic bomb's creation. That section also has a wealth of content related to Sadako Sasaki, who died of leukemia in 1955 and became posthumously famous as a symbol of the destruction wrought by the bombing of Hiroshima. Years ago, I read Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes and I still remember it as one of the saddest books I have ever read, so I found this section the most interesting.

One thing I am curious about the museum itself is the balance between content tied directly to the atomic bombings and broader material. The site seems to have much more of the former (e.g the "steps toward peace" has a section on the quest for the abolition of nuclear weapons and on the recovery of Hiroshima), but the name of the museum suggests something broader to me.