Hiroshima Peace Memorial

The building now known across the world as the Atomic Bomb Dome was completed in April 1915 as an exhibition hall for the products of Hiroshima Prefecture. Its designer, the Czech architect Jan Letzel, gave it a distinctive dome that made it a landmark on the riverbank next to the Aioi Bridge. At 8:15 in the morning on 6 August 1945 the first atomic bomb used in war exploded almost directly above it, about 600 metres up and some 150 metres to one side. Everyone inside was killed instantly. Because the blast came from above, the vertical walls and columns held, and the building was one of very few left standing near the hypocentre.

After the war, many in Hiroshima wanted the ruin cleared away; others argued it should remain as a memorial. As the Peace Memorial Park took shape around it between 1950 and 1964, the Dome stayed, and in 1966 the city council resolved to preserve it permanently. The mayor, Shinzo Hamai, raised money in Japan and abroad, at one point collecting donations on the streets of Tokyo. Conservation work has been kept to a minimum, with a steel frame inside to stabilise the walls, so the building looks almost exactly as it did after the explosion: a shell of brick and concrete with the bare skeleton of its dome against the sky.

The Dome stands on the bank of the Motoyasu River at the edge of the park, and it is best understood together with the memorials around it. From the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims, the Dome is framed in the arch; strings of origami cranes left by visitors hang near the ruin, and the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall is close by. The bombing killed more than 140,000 people.

The Dome was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1996, a decision the United States dissociated itself from and China questioned. Every 6 August the city holds its peace memorial ceremony here. In 2016 Barack Obama became the first sitting US president to visit, and the leaders of the G7 came in 2023. Around it the rebuilt city has grown up again, and the modern skyline beyond the ruin only sharpens the contrast.

Getting there

The Dome is in central Hiroshima, less than 1 km from the heart of the city. From Hiroshima Station, a Hiroden streetcar reaches the Genbaku Dome-mae stop in about 17 minutes, a minute's walk from the ruin. Hiroshima Airport (HIJ) is linked by an airport bus to the Hiroshima Bus Center in about 50 minutes, five minutes' walk away. The nearest airport in a straight line is Iwakuni Kintaikyo (IWK), about 34 km to the southwest.