Peace Museum rearranges its exhibits for the G7 leader visit, who had few staff to accompany
May 21, 2023
by Koji Higuchi, Staff Writer
On May 20, it was learned a special arrangement was made for the May 19 visit to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (Hiroshima’s Naka Ward) by the leaders of the G7 (Group of Seven industrialized nations), who are in Hiroshima for the summit meeting of the G7. A government official said they had the museum move some of the victims' personal belongings and other items normally displayed in the museum's Main Building, which has sections on the devastation of the atomic bombing, to the East Building so that the leaders could "see important items in a limited period of time.”
The tour of the museum was closed to the media. According to the person involved, they went from the first floor of the East Building to the third floor after entering. They received explanations from Prime Minister Fumio Kishida about some of the exhibits that were moved from the Main Building, and then heard the story of Keiko Ogura, an 85-year-old survivor of the atomic bombing. They looked at paper cranes folded by Sadako Sasaki and items left behind by the victims, as did then U.S. President Barack Obama during his visit to the museum in 2016.
The museum visit was realized at the express wish of the prime minister, whose electoral base is in the A-bombed city, but the government was asked to keep tight control over information in the negotiation process with the United States, the nation that dropped the atomic bomb. For this reason, only a very few could accompany the leaders, not including the director of the museum and the leaders of the local governments.
All the leaders stayed together in the museum for about 40 minutes, which is four times longer than Mr. Obama. It was the first conversation between an A-bomb survivor and incumbent leaders of the three nuclear-armed nations, the United States, the United Kingdom and France.
(Originally published on May 21, 2023)
On May 20, it was learned a special arrangement was made for the May 19 visit to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (Hiroshima’s Naka Ward) by the leaders of the G7 (Group of Seven industrialized nations), who are in Hiroshima for the summit meeting of the G7. A government official said they had the museum move some of the victims' personal belongings and other items normally displayed in the museum's Main Building, which has sections on the devastation of the atomic bombing, to the East Building so that the leaders could "see important items in a limited period of time.”
The tour of the museum was closed to the media. According to the person involved, they went from the first floor of the East Building to the third floor after entering. They received explanations from Prime Minister Fumio Kishida about some of the exhibits that were moved from the Main Building, and then heard the story of Keiko Ogura, an 85-year-old survivor of the atomic bombing. They looked at paper cranes folded by Sadako Sasaki and items left behind by the victims, as did then U.S. President Barack Obama during his visit to the museum in 2016.
The museum visit was realized at the express wish of the prime minister, whose electoral base is in the A-bombed city, but the government was asked to keep tight control over information in the negotiation process with the United States, the nation that dropped the atomic bomb. For this reason, only a very few could accompany the leaders, not including the director of the museum and the leaders of the local governments.
All the leaders stayed together in the museum for about 40 minutes, which is four times longer than Mr. Obama. It was the first conversation between an A-bomb survivor and incumbent leaders of the three nuclear-armed nations, the United States, the United Kingdom and France.
(Originally published on May 21, 2023)
