Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

Top choice in Hiroshima


The main building of Hiroshima's premier museum houses a collection of items salvaged from the aftermath of the atomic bomb. The displays are confronting and personal – ragged clothes, a child's melted lunchbox, a watch stopped at 8.15am – and there are some grim photographs. While upsetting, it's a must-see in Hiroshima. The east building presents a history of Hiroshima and of the development and destructive power of nuclear weapons.

At the exit, don't miss the first-person video accounts and guestbook of world-leader visitors – including the first visit by a sitting US president, Barack Obama in 2016, who gifted origami cranes.

Transportation

  • tram: Genbaku-dōmu-mae or Chūden-mae

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Hiroshima attractions

1. Cenotaph

0.07 MILES

This curved concrete monument houses a list of the names of all the known victims of the atomic bomb. It stands at one end of the pond at the centre of…

2. Peace Memorial Park

0.07 MILES

Hugged by rivers on both sides, Peace Memorial Park is a large, leafy space crisscrossed by walkways and dotted with memorials and tranquil spaces for…

4. Flame of Peace

0.12 MILES

The Flame of Peace, a feature of the pond in Peace Memorial Park, will be extinguished only once every nuclear weapon on earth has been destroyed.

5. Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Memorial

0.16 MILES

This memorial in the Peace Memorial Park honours the Korean victims of the atomic bomb. Many Koreans were shipped over to Japan to work as slave labour…

6. Children's Peace Monument

0.16 MILES

The Children's Peace Monument was inspired by Sadako Sasaki, who was just two years old at the time of the atomic bomb. At age 11 she developed leukaemia,…

7. Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound

0.18 MILES

The ashes of thousands of unclaimed or unidentified victims of the atomic bomb are interred in a vault below this low grassy mound in the Peace Memorial…

8. Atomic Bomb Dome

0.28 MILES

Perhaps the starkest reminder of the destruction visited upon Hiroshima in WWII is the Atomic Bomb Dome. Built by a Czech architect in 1915, it was the…

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting:
    {
      "url": "japan/hiroshima/attractions/hiroshima-peace-memorial-museum/a/poi-sig/1231502/1328696",
      "destination": "Hiroshima",
      "continent": "Asia",
      "country": "Japan",
      "city": "Hiroshima",
      "position": "superzone"
    }