Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims was designed to allow visitors to have calmness and serenity in the outside portion of this structure before entering. You won’t see a building here because the memorial is underground. Only an expansive pond with a glass wall is observable aboveground. Find the calming effect of the water that represents the inability of victims to quench their insatiable thirst after the explosion.
Read the message on the wall before continuing into the hall below. The facility has two floors underground the first is the Memoir Exhibition Corner. Touring this vast collection of accounts from bombing survivors, family members and witnesses is a sombre experience.
The Remembrance Hall Loft on this level is an atrium rising from the floor below to project above the pond’s surface. Ponder on the dire immensity of the bomb’s effects in the soft environment these light shafts provide. Reflect on the enormous number of human casualties.
Go farther underground to the next floor for the Remembrance Hall, where the names of atomic bomb victims are enshrined in the atrium’s pillars. Place yourself between the rows lined up in the direction of the bomb’s hypocenter.
This floor’s Peace Information Corner has accounts of radiation illnesses and audiovisual materials. Poetry and images are used to give the message that such an act will hopefully never be repeated anywhere in the world.
Express your own wishes for peace by using one of the available computers or paper and pen messages stay on display for 10 years. Use the passageway to connect to Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum.
A serene lounge with a view of a garden pond and a soft flowing waterfall provide inspiration for reflection and composure of thought. View the pond at night when it’s lit with 70,000 lights representing the estimated number of those killed instantly by the bomb.
Find Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims by taking tram 1 or 2 to Matsuyama-machi stop followed by a short walk. Admission is free. The site is closed for several days at year-end.
