The Honkawa Elementary School Peace Museum (本川小学校平和資料館 ''Honkawa Shogakkou Heiwa Shiryokan'') is a museum of the Peace in Honkawacho, Naka-ku,

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The school was the closest school to

ground zero In relation to nuclear explosions and other large bombs, ground zero (also called surface zero) is the point on the Earth's surface closest to a detonation. In the case of an explosion above the ground, ''ground zero'' is the point on the ground ...

of the

Hiroshima bombing The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the on ...

. They lost about 400 students and more than 10 teachers, and the building took great amounts of damage from the

atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

dropped on August 6, 1945. The Peace Museum is the part of the school building with the basement of the former Hiroshima City Honkawa Elementary School; it is kept as a place to learn about the importance of peace. The museum is operated by the Honkawa Elementary School PTA, as well as former members of the PTA, and is cleaned and maintained by the students. The memorial service for the students and teachers killed in the blast is held every August 5 at the school. The school has also appeared in the

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

Barefoot Gen is a Japanese historical manga series by Keiji Nakazawa. Loosely based on Nakazawa's own experiences as a Hiroshima survivor, the series begins in 1945 in and around Hiroshima, Japan, where the six-year-old boy Gen Nakaoka lives wi ...

'', written by

Keiji Nakazawa was a Japanese manga artist and writer. Biography Nakazawa was born March 14, 1939 Naka-ku, Hiroshima, Japan and was in the city when it was Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, destroyed by an atomic bomb in August 1945. Most of his famil ...

History

The school opened in the Myocho-ji, a temple of the

Nichiren sect Nichiren Buddhism ( ja, 日蓮仏教), also known as Hokkeshū ( ja, 法華宗, meaning ''Lotus Sect'') is a branch of Mahayana Buddhism based on the teachings of the 13th-century Japanese Buddhist priest Nichiren (1222–1282) and is one of ...

, on January 10, 1873. They built an independent schoolhouse at the current address in 1884. In July 1928 the school constructed a new building, which was the first reinforced concrete school building in Hiroshima. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

students in third grade or older were evacuated to another school in the suburbs in April 1945. A few months later, on August 6, 1945, about 400 students and more than 10 teachers were killed by the

that was dropped on Hiroshima. In February 1946 the school reopened with 45 students with 4 teachers, but they didn't have any school supplies and the building still hadn't been fully repaired. In 1947 Reverend

Arthur Powell Davies Arthur Powell Davies (June 5, 1902 – September 26, 1957) was the minister of All Souls Church, Unitarian (Washington, D.C.), All Souls Church, Unitarian in Washington, D.C. from 1944 until his death in 1957.May 9, 2003, Manish Mishra-Marzet ...

encouraged his congregation at the

All Souls Church All Souls Church, All Soul's Chapel, and variations, may refer to: United Kingdom *Church of All Souls, Bolton *All Souls' Church, Halifax *All Souls Church, Hastings *All Souls' Church, Blackman Lane *All Souls Church, Langham Place * All Souls C ...

to donate half a ton of school supplies to Honkawa Elementary school. The students drew pictures in thanks, and sent them to the All Souls Church. In June 1947 the school was renamed as Hiroshima City Honkawa Elementary School. In 1950 it was designated as the "School of the Peace Memorial City" by the Ministry of Education. The new school building was built and part of the old building was opened as the Peace Museum in April 1988. A memorial for the atomic bomb victims was built in November 1998. The total number of visitors for the museum reached 100,000 in September 1998. A collection of the stories about the atomic bomb, ''Negai'' was written in March 2005. Students participated in the

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony is an annual Japanese vigil. Every August 6, "A-Bomb Day", the city of Hiroshima holds the Peace Memorial Ceremony to console the victims of the atomic bombs and to pray for the realization of lasting world pea ...

and performed the Commitment to Peace as the Children's representatives on August 6, 2005. Most recently,

cherry trees A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The na ...

were planted in remembrance of the bombing in March 2006.

Museum

Exhibitions

*Photographs *Pictures and

calligraphy Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

by students of the school *Damaged objects * Thousand Paper Cranes from schools and people

Education programs

*Volunteer Guide Services - appointment is required in advance **by the atomic bomb survivors for the visitors **by the students of the school for the students visiting from other schools

References

External links