Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park Guide: Visiting with Care and Japanese to Use

Why Hiroshima's Peace Park matters

At 8:15 on the morning of 6 August 1945, an atomic bomb exploded over central Hiroshima. The district that is now the Peace Memorial Park, Heiwa Kinen Kōen, was a crowded neighbourhood of homes, shops and temples, and it was almost completely destroyed. Tens of thousands of people died that day, and many more in the months and years that followed from injuries and radiation.

After the war the city rebuilt, and it decided that this part of it would become a place of memory. The park was designed by the architect Tange Kenzō, and its main axis runs from the museum through the Cenotaph and the Flame of Peace to the ruined dome across the river. The Dome itself, once the Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, was left standing as a witness and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.

People come for different reasons: to pray for family members, on school trips, to learn, or simply because they feel they should see it. What they share is a quiet way of moving through the park. For a visitor with some Japanese, the words carved into the stones are worth reading slowly, and the few sentences you need at the museum are short and polite. This guide keeps them simple so that the language supports the visit rather than getting in its way.

Getting there: the tram to Genbaku Dōmu-mae

The easiest way from Hiroshima Station is the Hiroden tram, the city's streetcar. Since August 2025 the trams leave from a stop on the second floor of the station building. Routes 2 and 6 run to Genbaku Dōmu-mae, the stop directly in front of the A-Bomb Dome, in around fifteen minutes; the route number is shown on the front of each tram. You pay when you get off, and IC cards such as ICOCA work on the tram.

If you want to start at the museum end of the park instead, stay on one more stop to Chūden-mae, or walk south from Genbaku Dōmu-mae across the Motoyasu Bridge. The Hiroshima sightseeing loop bus also stops by the park, and the World Heritage Sea Route boat to Miyajima leaves from a pier on the river bank beside it, which makes it easy to combine the two in one day.

The Dome, the Cenotaph and the Children's Peace Monument

Most visitors walk the park from north to south, from the Dome to the museum, or the other way round. Distances are short, a few minutes between each monument, but give yourself time to stop. Many of the smaller memorials along the river paths were set up by particular groups, schools or workplaces for their own dead, and they are easy to walk past without noticing.

The Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims, the saddle-shaped arch at the centre of the park, shelters a stone chest holding the registers of the names of those who died because of the bomb, with names added each year. Standing in front of it, you can see the Flame of Peace and, framed beyond it, the A-Bomb Dome. The Children's Peace Monument is dedicated to the children who died, and is associated with Sasaki Sadako, a girl who folded paper cranes while ill with leukaemia after the bombing. Cranes sent from all over the world are displayed in glass booths around it.

• Genbaku Dōmu, the A-Bomb Dome: the preserved ruin on the east bank of the Motoyasu River.
• Aioi-bashi: the T-shaped bridge beside the Dome, visible from the north end of the park.
• Genbaku no Ko no Zō, the Children's Peace Monument: the statue of a girl holding up a crane, surrounded by booths of paper cranes.
• Heiwa no Kane, the Peace Bell: visitors may ring it, once and gently.
• Heiwa no Tomoshibi, the Flame of Peace: lit in 1964, to burn until nuclear weapons are gone from the world.
• Ireihi, the Cenotaph: the arch over the register of names, the focus of the 6 August ceremony.
• Heiwa Kinen Shiryōkan, the Peace Memorial Museum: the long building at the south end of the park.
• Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims: a quiet underground hall for remembrance, next to the museum.

Words on the monuments and signs

The signs in the park are bilingual, but reading the Japanese helps you understand how the place names itself. Two kanji recur everywhere: 平和, heiwa, peace, and 原爆, genbaku, atomic bomb. Once you know them you can read most of the monument names on your own.

The inscription on the stone chest under the Cenotaph is one of the most quoted sentences in Japan: 安らかに眠って下さい 過ちは繰返しませぬから, yasuraka ni nemutte kudasai, ayamachi wa kurikaeshimasenu kara. It is usually translated as let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil. Japanese grammar leaves the subject of the sentence unstated, and the city explains the we as meaning all of humanity.

Japanese at the museum: tickets, audio guides and paper cranes

The Peace Memorial Museum is laid out as a route: you enter through the East Building, walk through the exhibits on the day of the bombing and the lives of the victims, and continue into the Main Building. The staff are used to visitors from all over the world and signs are in English, but a polite question in Japanese is always welcome. Buying a web ticket in advance saves queuing, and at busy times the first and last periods of the day need one.

If you bring paper cranes, leave them at the Children's Peace Monument, where they are collected and cared for, rather than elsewhere in the park. Folding a crane yourself beforehand, and knowing how to say so, is a small gesture many visitors value.

Etiquette, timing and practical tips

The park is a public space where people also jog, sit and eat lunch, but at the monuments it becomes a memorial. A little care makes your visit easier for the people around you, including survivors and their families.

• Lower your voice near the Cenotaph and the Children's Peace Monument, and do not climb on or lean against any monument.
• Many people pause at the Cenotaph with their hands together for a moment of silence; you are welcome to do the same.
• Photograph the monuments, but ask before photographing people who are praying, and avoid posing for cheerful selfies at the Cenotaph.
• Inside the museum, some exhibits are graphic. Parents with young children may want to preview the route; there are places to sit and rest.
• Go early in the morning or later in the afternoon on weekdays. School groups fill the museum from mid-morning on weekdays in term time.
• Around 6 August the park hosts the Peace Memorial Ceremony in the morning and a lantern floating on the Motoyasu River in the evening. Both are moving, and very crowded.

Practise the visit before you go

The one exchange you are likely to have is at the museum door. Staff answer with a gesture and a short sentence, often with achira, over there, so listen for that word and the name of the building. Practise the four lines until you can say them without reading.

Then practise with a partner who answers back. In Unihongo, choose the Directions topic and ask your AI Sensei to play a volunteer guide in the Peace Park, or pick Cultural Etiquette to rehearse quiet, respectful phrasing. Having said the lines once before you arrive leaves you free to give the place your full attention.

Official information

Opening hours, web ticket rules, temporary closures for exhibition changes and the ceremony arrangements for 6 August are published by the museum. Check before you go.

• Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum official website (English)