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Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum displays photos of President Obama’s visit

by Hidetoshi Arioka, Staff Writer

On June 30, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, located in Naka Ward, began displaying photo panels of U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to the museum on May 27. The two photo panels show President Obama writing in the museum guestbook and placing paper cranes that he made by his message. They can be seen in a special area with the guestbook and the paper cranes, near the end of the museum tour route, until August 31.

One photo shows the two leaders of Japan and the United States from the front as they write in the museum guestbook on the first floor of the east building, and the other shows Mr. Obama solemnly placing the two paper cranes on the guestbook with both hands. The photos were provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Obama was in the museum for just ten minutes, but how he spent this time in the museum has not been revealed to the public in detail. The museum chose to display the photos so that visitors will reflect on the significance of the president’s visit and peace. Two more photos taken by the city government are also on display. One photo shows Mr. Obama speaking in front of the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims, and the other shows him greeting the A-bomb survivors who listened to his speech.

According to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, the number of visitors to the museum in the month following Mr. Obama’s visit was roughly 109,000, which is one and a half times the figure from the same period last year. On this day, Kimie Nagano, 80, a resident of Saeki Ward, was visiting the museum for the first time in about 40 years, prompted by Mr. Obama’s visit. “I really felt that President Obama had come to the A-bombed city,” she said. “I hope momentum for a world without nuclear weapons will grow.”

(Originally published on July 1, 2016)

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