Fukuro-machi Elementary School Peace Museum

Fukuro-machi Elementary School Peace Museum - darkometer rating : 7 - The preserved section of a school building that was exposed to the A-bombing of Hiroshima . Only about 500 yards (450m) from the hypocentre (the second closest school after Honkawa school ) most of the school was destroyed by the blast and fires, only the shell of the west building, made from sturdier reinforced concrete, remained standing – though nearly all inside perished. Only three pupils miraculously survived, because they happened to be in a sheltered part of the basement at the time of the blast. After the bombing, the school's concrete west building served as an important relief station, where survivors were treated as best as was possible under the circumstances. It also acted as an information centre – survivors left notes here about their or others' whereabouts so that relatives could try and reunite. Some of those messages are displayed in today's museum, which opened in 2002. The rest of the building is gone, replaced by a modern school building. > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos What there is to see: The prime exhibit is some of those original scribbled messages left by survivors in chalk on the soot-blackened walls of the staircase. The messages were plastered over after the war but rediscovered when the plaster layer was stripped off. It was decided to preserve this rare piece of evidence of this aspect of the atomic tragedy of Hiroshima . The original markings on the wall are actually very small, but are surrounded by a blow-up of a photo taken at the time (which is also displayed at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum ) to give you a good impression. There are traces of other markings discovered when a blackboard was taken down.