8:15 AM, August 6, 1945

What you're looking at is the ruin of the former Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. On August 6, 1945, at 8:15 in the morning, Little Boy detonated 150 meters horizontally and 600 meters directly above this building. Almost everything else was flattened. Why did the Dome survive? Its shape. The blast came down nearly vertically, and the building's columns — designed to carry vertical loads — held. The outer walls partially crumbled, but the dome's steel skeleton endured. It was designed by Czech architect Jan Letzel in 1915. He could never have imagined that its greatest test w…

The Motoyasu Bridge stood exactly here on the morning of August 6, 1945. Immediately after the explosion, survivors ran toward the river. Their bodies were burning from the thermal radiation. Thousands jumped into the water. Many couldn't swim, or were too severely injured. The river filled with bodies. Those on the bridge were no exception. The bridge itself was destroyed by the blast wave and later rebuilt. Historical records describe shadows burned into the concrete by the bomb's flash. The river you see below was here that day. The water kept flowing. That was the one thing that didn't …

This building was constructed in 1929. It sits just 170 meters from the hypocenter. On the morning of August 6, 1945, a man named Nomura Hideo was working in the basement. Being underground, he survived the thermal radiation and blast wave. He was the only survivor in the building. Everyone on the upper floors died instantly. A random accident of location — being in the basement instead of on the ground floor — was the difference between living and dying. The building was damaged but remained standing. It was restored after the war. Today it functions as a souvenir shop and tourist informat…

Directly below where you're standing, just meters underground, is the site of Shima Hospital. On August 6, 1945, at exactly 8:15, Little Boy detonated 600 meters directly above this spot. At the instant of detonation, the temperature at the fireball's center exceeded 6,000 degrees Celsius. Within a 500-meter radius, virtually no one survived. The time it took to die: less than one second. Little Boy weighed 4,400 kilograms. It was 3 meters long. It contained 64 kilograms of enriched uranium, but less than one kilogram actually underwent fission. That kilogram released the equivalent of 15,00…

This monument is dedicated to the Korean victims who died in Hiroshima. At least 45,000 people. Why were they in Hiroshima? Because they had been brought by force. As forced laborers from colonial Korea. As conscripted soldiers in the imperial army. They were there without choosing to be. Many Korean survivors couldn't go home. If they stayed in Japan, they faced discrimination. If they returned to Korea, they were accused of collaborating with the Empire. There was no place for them anywhere. This monument was placed in the park in 1970, first outside, then moved inside. Hiroshima's traged…

The statue in front of you honors Sadako Sasaki. Sadako was two years old when the bomb fell. Ten years later, in 1955, she was diagnosed with leukemia at age 11. From her hospital bed, she began folding paper cranes. According to Japanese legend, whoever folds a thousand cranes may make a wish. Her wish was just one: to live. Exactly how many she folded is debated. Her brother says she surpassed 1,000. She died on October 25, 1955, at age 12. Her last words, after eating rice with tea, were simply: "it's good." The statue's inscription reads: "This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in …

Inside this mound lie the remains of 70,000 people. People with no names. A few days after the bombing, thousands of bodies covered the city. The summer heat made epidemic disease imminent. Authorities collected and cremated them here, unable to identify nearly any of them. 70,000 people. The equivalent of a mid-sized city's population. Unnamed. Without individual headstones. With no one knowing exactly who they were. Right now, think of them not as a number — but as individuals who that morning had breakfast, got dressed, and walked toward something they could not have imagined.…

This bell was installed on September 20, 1964. It has a world map engraved on it. No borders. The continents connected as one. At the center, the symbol of the atom. On the bell's rim, the word "peace" in Greek, Japanese, and Sanskrit. Anyone can ring it. Tourists, locals, visitors from anywhere in the world. Ringing it is making a vow to work toward the elimination of nuclear weapons. On the morning of August 6, 1945, Hiroshima's bells fell silent. The bell towers, the temples, everything turned to ash. This bell is the answer to that silence.…

The concrete arch-shaped structure in front of you is the Cenotaph. Inside are books with the names of more than 220,000 victims — those who died in the blast and those who died afterward from radiation. New names are added every August 6th. Look through the arch: the Flame of Peace lines up perfectly with the Genbaku Dome behind it. That alignment is intentional. At the base, an inscription reads: "Rest in peace, for the error shall not be repeated." Who committed the error — that sentence has been debated for decades. Architect Kenzo Tange deliberately omitted the subject. The ambiguity i…

This flame was lit on August 1, 1964. Since that day, it has never been extinguished. It goes out under only one condition: when the last nuclear weapon in the world is destroyed. As of 2026, there are approximately 12,000 nuclear warheads in the world. The flame is still burning. Directly behind the flame you can see the Genbaku Dome. The Cenotaph is also on this line. These three aligned points form the park's central axis: past, present, and future. On August 6th at dawn, sunlight passes over the flame and falls directly on the Dome.…

One of the most striking objects in the museum is a watch inside a display case. The hands are stopped at 8:15. At the instant of the explosion, every clock in Hiroshima stopped. Literally. Electronic, mechanical, wall-mounted, wristwatch. The electromagnetic pulse and shock wave froze everything. You'll also see images of "atomic shadows": silhouettes burned into the ground and walls by the explosion's flash. The heat flash instantly bleached all exposed materials except areas shielded by a human body. The body vanished. The shadow remained. The shadow of someone sitting on the steps of Su…

The hibakusha. Officially recognized survivors: around 650,000 throughout history. As of March 2026, only 91,000 remain alive. Most are over 80 years old. Those who survived the explosion faced another kind of cruelty. They were refused marriage. They were refused employment. People mistakenly believed radiation exposure was hereditary or contagious. There was no scientific basis for that, but the stigma lasted for decades. Hiroshima had 350,000 inhabitants in 1945. After the bomb, it fell below 100,000. Ten years later, the city had already rebuilt itself. Today it has 1.2 million people. …