Hiroshima and Miyajima · Central Hiroshima
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park
Until 6 August 1945 the Nakajima district stood here, a commercial and administrative center of the city, with about 6,500 residents on seven streets. The bomb exploded at a height of 600 meters above Shima Hospital, just east of the river. After the Hiroshima Peace Memorial City Construction Law of 1949, it was decided to turn the district into a park, and the design by Kenzo Tange and two partners won the competition. The park was completed in 1954.
The Atomic Bomb Dome, at the northern end, was the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, designed by the Czech architect Jan Letzel and opened in 1915. It stood about 160 meters from the hypocenter. Everyone in the building was killed, but because the blast came almost straight down from above, part of the walls and the frame of the dome stayed standing. The city decided in 1966 to preserve it, and in December 1996 it was registered as a World Heritage Site. You see it from the outside.
On the central axis stands the Cenotaph, in the shape of an ancient house, and inside it a stone chest holds the names of those who died from the bomb, regardless of nationality: 353,639 names as of 6 August 2026. Behind it the Flame of Peace has burned since 1 August 1964, and it will be put out only when nuclear weapons disappear from the world. North of it is the Children's Peace Monument, in memory of Sadako Sasaki, who was exposed to radiation at the age of two and died of leukemia ten years later. According to the city, about ten million paper cranes arrive there each year. Visitors ring the Peace Bell, from 1964, themselves.
Good to know
- Hiroshima Peace Volunteers guide in the park in English for free: departures at 10:45 and 14:00, about an hour and a half, up to 10 participants, no advance booking. You register 15 minutes before, at the volunteer desk next to the information counter on floor 1 of the museum's East Building. There are no tours in July, August and September, and none on days with a heatstroke alert.
- Every morning at 08:15, the time of the explosion, the Peace Clock next to the Atomic Bomb Dome chimes.
- The Memorial Mound in the north of the park holds the ashes of about 70 thousand victims for whom no relatives were found. Each year the city publishes the names that have been identified, in the hope that a family will come.
What is nearby
Approximate walking minutes from the entrance of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
- HereHiroshima Peace Memorial Park
- ~2 min
Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims More to see
A hall run by the Japanese government, mostly underground. On the lowest floor is a round hall with a panorama of the destroyed city, made of 140 thousand tiles, the estimated number of dead by the end of 1945. It also holds names and photos of victims and testimonies of survivors. Entry is free.
- ~3 min
Rest House, Peace Memorial Park More to see
The Taishoya kimono shop was built here in 1929. Of the 37 employees in the building on 6 August 1945, only one survived, a man who had gone down to the basement at that moment. The basement has been preserved and is open to visitors. Floor 1 has tourist information and souvenirs, and floor 2 has the 'Piano Cafe', next to a piano that survived the bombing. Entry is free.
- ~4 min
BACKEN MOZART CAFE, International Conference Center Hiroshima Cafe
A cafe on the ground floor of the International Conference Center, in the south of the park near the museum. Meals, cakes and coffee.
- ~5 min
Okonomiyaki Nagataya Food
A two-minute walk from the Atomic Bomb Dome and from Peace Park.
- ~7 min
Hiroshima Orizuru Tower More to see
An office tower opposite the Atomic Bomb Dome with an open wooden observation deck on the roof. From the top you see the dome and the park, and on clear days as far as Mount Misen on Miyajima. ¥2,200 per adult, plus ¥100 if you want to drop a paper crane into the crane wall.
- ~17 min
Okonomimura Food
A building in Shintenchi where more than twenty okonomiyaki stalls sit on floors 2 to 4. Each stall is independent, with its own hours and day off.
More in Central Hiroshima
Appears in: Hiroshima and Miyajima: the Peace Memorial in the morning, the floating torii gate in the evening