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The new buildling erected on the site of
the former Hiroshima Peace Memorial Hall
has been combined with the former Hiroshima
Peace Memorial Museum to create the new Hiroshima
Peace Memorial Museum which opened on June
1, 1994. The aim of the museum is to contribute
to the abolition of nuclear weapons and the
realization of lasting world peace. The former Hiroshima Peace Memorial Hall was first erected in May 1995 and had been used by a great number of people as a place for peace-study activities such as meetings, A-bomb eyewitness testimonies for students on field trips and the showing of A-bomb documentaries. The west side of the Memorial Hall os the former Peace Memorial Museum(commonly called the "A-bomb Museum") building. It occupies the center of the south side of Peace Memorial Park and was built on pillars so the Memorial Monument for Hiroshima, City of Peace(Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims) could be seen directly from Peace Boulevard(100-meter-wide Avenue). Construction on the building was begun in March 1951 and completed in August 1955. It was designed with the intent of expressing humanity's power to rise from amidst ruins. Before the former musenum was built, an "A-bomb Memorial Hall" was set up beside the then-Hiroshima Central Public Hall. Shugo Nagaoka, who was a part-time civil servant(later director of the museum), was in charge of collecting and checking materials related to the bombing. It all began with Hiroshima Mayor Shingo Hamai's call directly after the A-bombing for a policy of collecting materials such as tiles and other items from the disaster which had been subjected to intense heat rays and had important historical significance as silent witnesses to what happened in Hiroshima. The present museum was completed thanks to Director Nagaoka's passionate scholastic devotion and the extraordinary cooperation of the people of Hiroshima. When the latest reconstruction took place,the following displays were designed for the first,second and third floors of the east side of the museum,the former Hiroshima Peace Memorial Hall: (1)Information, (2)Hiroshima Before the A-bombing, (3)the Destruction of Hiroshima, (4)War,the A-bomb and the People of Hiroshima, (5)The Nuclear Age,and (6)The Path to Peace. On the First level basement floor,there will also be exhibitions of paintings of the A-bombing drawn by survivors, and rooms for listening to the testimonies of eyewitnesses.Meeting rooms will also be available for students on field trips studying peace issues. Togtether with the completion of the East Building, an elevated corridor was completed linking it to the West Buildeing (former Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum) which contains the following exhibitions that show the situation following the A-bombing:(1)August6,1945, (2)Damage from Heatrays, (3)Damage forom Blast, (4)Damage from radiation, (5)Damage from High-temperature Fires, (6)Relief and Rescue Operations, (7)Agony from the aftereffects,(8)Recorded Testimony of the Atomic Bomb Survivors and (9)Messages for Peace. |
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