Honkawa Elementary School Peace Museum

Honkawa Elementary School Peace Museum is a preserved and renovated facility consisting of part of the former Honkawa National School building and its basement. It is located on the grounds of Hiroshima Municipal Honkawa Elementary School, about a 2-minute walk from Honkawacho Station on the Hiroshima Electric Railway. Honkawa National School (now Honkawa Elementary School) was the school closest to the hypocenter, approximately 410 meters away, and is depicted in the manga "Barefoot Gen" by Keiji Nakazawa. Severely damaged by the atomic bomb, the three-story reinforced concrete school building was completely burned out, leaving only the outer walls. Built in 1928, the L-shaped structure was Hiroshima’s first reinforced concrete school building and featured modern architectural elements for its time, such as arched openings on the first floor and at the main entrance. Classes resumed in February 1946 after minimal repairs, and the bombed building continued to be used with repeated renovations. However, most of the structure was demolished upon completion of a new school building in 1988, and the remaining portion and basement were converted into a museum. Many of the exhibits were collected by former teachers from the devastated area, and the building itself stands as a powerful testament to the horrors of war and the importance of peace.