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Hiroshima · Japan

Honkawa Elementary School Peace Museum: what's nearby, how to get there and when to go · 2026

Long-term residents in Honkawacho share their neighborhood routines with an operating municipal school that maintains its surviving concrete basement as a public peace archive.

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About the place

Honkawa Elementary School preserves Hiroshima's earliest reinforced concrete schoolhouse as an active peace museum beside modern classrooms.

The institution originated inside Myocho-ji, a Nichiren Buddhist temple, before securing an independent site and erecting the city's earliest reinforced concrete school building. When wartime evacuations sent upper-grade children to suburban shelters, the remaining teachers and pupils endured the atomic bombing. The blast hollowed out the building, yet classes resumed within damaged rooms despite an acute lack of supplies.

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International relief arrived when All Souls Church sent supplies, prompting enrolled children to exchange hand-drawn pictures in gratitude. Designated as a peace memorial institution by the national education ministry, the campus later separated modern classrooms from the surviving concrete wing. That historic section operates as an archival museum, flanked by victim memorials, commemorative cherry trees, and student testimonies.

Associations
  • Reinforced concrete shellSurviving structural walls demonstrate the direct impact of the atomic blast.
  • All Souls Church exchangeCongregants sent aid packages in exchange for pictures drawn by local students.
  • Active school environmentVisitor access coincides with daily classes, requiring quiet and decorum on site.
  • Negai testimony archiveThe facility preserves published witness accounts collected from bomb survivors.
Facts
  • The original school opened inside Myocho-ji, a temple belonging to the Nichiren sect.
  • The structure was the earliest educational building in Hiroshima constructed from reinforced concrete.
  • The Ministry of Education officially designated the campus as the School of the Peace Memorial City.
  • Reverend Arthur Powell Davies organized school supply donations from All Souls Church after the conflict.
  • The museum occupies a preserved section of the historic building adjacent to the modern elementary facilities.
Source: Wikipedia
Honkawa Elementary School Peace Museum in pictures8 photos · 3 places
Honkawa Elementary School Peace Museum
そらみみ · cc-by-sa-3.0 · Nov 25, 2013
Aloi Bridge
そらみみ · cc-by-sa-3.0 · Nov 25, 2013
Aioi Bridge
そらみみ · cc-by-sa-3.0 · Nov 25, 2013
Aioi Bridge
そらみみ · cc-by-sa-3.0 · Nov 25, 2013

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