Fukuromachi School Peace Museum

photo by Kiyokun · Pubblico dominio

The chalk messages of people searching for the missing after the bomb are still on the walls.

In the west wing of the elementary school, which survived the destruction of the neighbourhood, the walls still bear the messages written in chalk by people searching for missing relatives in the days after 6 August 1945. In the basement a film tells the story of the attack, with subtitles in Japanese and English. The building stands about 460 metres from the hypocentre, according to the city's tourism website.

Fukuromachi Elementary School was among the few buildings in the centre left standing on 6 August 1945: in the following days it served as a relief centre and as a gathering point for people seeking news of missing family members, and on the walls of the old west wing the chalk messages from that time remain. That wing is now the school's peace museum, while the rest of the complex has gone back to being a working elementary school.

ℹ️ Open 9:00–17:00, last entry at 16:40 (the municipality's official page). The building has three levels with a raised ground floor: reviews point out that it is not accessible to people with reduced mobility. About 200 metres from Hondōri.

🚉 Hondōri · 3 min walk

Sources: city.hiroshima.lg.jp · city.hiroshima.lg.jp

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