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Visitors to Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims Reaches Two Million
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On November 4, 2011, the number of visitors to
Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims
reached two million people. The 2 millionth visitor was Ms. Ingrid Ziege, a
German tourist visiting Hiroshima City. Mr. Kazuyuki Iwakawa, the Director of the Memorial Hall,
presented Ms. Ziege with commemorative gifts including a pictorial record of the damage from the
bombing, a card stand in the shape of the A-Bomb Dome, and a bouquet of flowers. Ms. Ziege said
"I came to Hiroshima because I wanted to see how a city changed after the atomic bomb was
dropped. Today I was strolling around Peace Memorial Park, and after viewing the A-Bomb Dome I
visited the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims. This is a quiet place
of prayer."
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Mr. Iwakawa said "From now on we want as
many people as possible to come to visit
Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the
Atomic Bomb Victims and Hiroshima Peace
Memorial Museum. And rather than keeping
their experience of these two places to
themselves, we want visitors to tell their
family and friends about it."
Since its opening on August 1, 2002, the
time it took for the number of visitors to
Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the
Atomic Bomb Victims to reach two million was
nine years and three months. In 2010 the
number of visitors was 215,000 people, the
most ever for a single year.
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Presentation of commemorative gifts
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In the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims is the Hall of
Remembrance, established to peacefully pay tribute to those who lost their lives in the atomic
bombing and to contemplate peace. There are also the names of the atomic bomb victims,
registration of their photographs, and a collection and public display of atomic bombing memoirs and
films of atomic bombing testimonies. Recitations of atomic bombing memoirs are also held, to
communicate to later generations the horror of war and the atomic bomb and the importance of
peace. Children and students visiting Hiroshima for peace studies as well as many others visit the
Memorial Hall.
There are also many visitors from overseas, and some of the atomic bombing memoirs have been
translated into 16 languages, including English, Chinese and Korean, so that overseas visitors can
read them in their mother tongue. There are also recitations of the atomic bombing memoirs in
English, and the memoirs and films of the memoirs are also available on the home page. These will
be used to broadly communicate this information both in Japan and overseas.
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(Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims)
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