Proposal by Summit Citizens Council included tour of 20 minutes in Peace Museum’s Main, East buildings, and 30 minutes for talk with A-bomb survivor
Jul. 15, 2023
To shorten stay, no visit made to Main Building
by Masanori Wada, Staff Writer
A proposal for a tour of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (in the city’s Naka Ward) made by the Hiroshima Prefectural and City governments to Japan’s national government before the summit meeting of the G7 (Group of Seven industrialized nations) held in May, was disclosed on July 14 in response to an information disclosure request made by the Chugoku Shimbun. The proposal called for the leaders, during the summit period, to spend 20 minutes in the Main and East buildings of the museum and 30 minutes for a talk with an A-bomb survivor. Ultimately, the leaders did not visit the museum’s Main Building, which is designed to convey the reality of the atomic bombing, and only saw some of the A-bomb materials in the museum’s East Building, abbreviating the visitors’ time spent in the museum.
According to the disclosed document, the Citizens Council for the Hiroshima Summit, a joint public-private sector organization in Hiroshima Prefecture, held talks with Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on October 5 last year and presented the council’s secretariat proposal for the leaders’ visit to Peace Memorial Park, located in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward. Using seven pages of reference materials, the council explained its proposal, which included a tour of the museum, dialogue with an A-bomb survivor, the writing of messages in the museum’s guestbook, and the offering of flowers at the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims.
The proposal set aside 20 minutes for the museum tour. It assumed that the leaders would follow the typical tour route, from the first floor to the third floor of the East Building, followed by a transition to the Main Building to look at the photographic portraits and belongings of A-bomb victims. In addition, the proposal suggested that the leaders spend 30 minutes for the talk with an A-bomb survivor, and 10 minutes for writing their messages in the museum’s guestbook. The proposal anticipated that the leaders would stay in the museum for a total of about one hour.
However, a report on the results of discussions with the Foreign Ministry indicated that the ministry’s response was, “We hope to realize the proposal to the extent possible, but we have to take into consideration the overall schedule of the conference and adjustments that have to be in made in concert with the other countries.”
The nine G7 and European Union leaders visited Peace Memorial Park on May 19, the initial day of the summit. They toured the Peace Memorial Museum, spoke with an A-bomb survivor, wrote their messages in the museum’s guestbook, and departed the museum all in about 40 minutes. It has become clear that the group did not enter the Main Building but did view A-bomb artifacts in the museum’s East Building.
In its interview with the Chugoku Shimbun, the secretariat of the Citizens Council for the Hiroshima Summit explained, “That was our secretariat’s proposal so please confirm with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the reality of the leaders’ visit to the museum.” The government responded, without disclosing details, “We had the leaders view important items in line with the museum’s main exhibit themes.”
(Originally published on July 15, 2023)
