Honkawa Elementary School Peace Museum

Honkawa Elementary School Peace Museum - darkometer rating : 8 - A small museum in a preserved section of the original Honkawa school building, which, having been built of sturdy reinforced concrete, was one of the few structures to remain standing as burned-out empty shells after the A-bombing of Hiroshima . The school is located less than 400 yards (350m) from the hypocentre (it was the closest school to the blast) and over 400 pupils and staff were killed in it – only two children miraculously survived. > 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: Most of the original building that "survived" the A-bombing of Hiroshima , standing as an empty shell, was later demolished to make way for a new school building. But one section was preserved and turned into a museum in 1988; it's partly ground floor and partly basement. In the basement there's a large diorama of the destroyed city with a red ball hanging over it to indicate the spot where the bomb went off above the hypocentre. This diorama is even bigger than those at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in the Peace Park ! And the gloomy light and atmosphere make it in a way even more gripping. Also, you don't get anything like the crowds of the main museum here – when I visited in April 2009 there was no one else about. [Update 2019: on my return visit I found the dioramas at the Peace Museum had disappeared, but here at this school this even better one was still in place; yet another reason to make the detour to this place now! And there were still no other visitors about.] Apart from the diorama there are a few photos, including one of the mushroom cloud, and a room with artefacts such as melted glass bottles and such like.