HIROSHIMA: Increased attention from the Group of Seven (G7) summit and the release of the blockbuster movie “Oppenheimer” helped fuel record numbers visiting the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in fiscal year 2023.
Museum officials reported 1,981,617 visitors passing through the doors during the financial year that ended in March.
The previous record was set in fiscal 2016, with over 1.73 million tourists following Barack Obama’s historic visit as the first sitting US president to travel to Hiroshima.
The record was surpassed again in financial year 2019, when the museum’s main building reopened after a major 2-year renovation and attracted over 1.75 million tourists.
The museum, which inaugurated in 1955, commemorates the US atomic bombing of the city on August 6, 1945.
The latest record attendance is l due to trips by G-7 leaders who attended a summit in Hiroshima in May 2023, according to municipal officials.
The international success of “Oppenheimer,” a biopic about the theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer who led the making of the atom bomb, has also contributed to an increase focus on the city
Despite controversy surrounding the scientist’s legacy, the movie finally opened in Japan in March, 8 months after its release in the US.
Vice Chairman of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation Shiro Tani said that films and media certainly have a great influence.
A man who visited the museum with his spouse on a weekend in February cited the worldwide coverage of the G-7 leaders visiting the museum and signing the guestbook.
Current Global Tensions and History of Hiroshima Bombing
Giuseppe Gorgone, a 25-year-old visitor from Italy, said he visited the museum because he felt that the current situation in war-hit Gaza is the same as Hiroshima in the past.
Given the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and the Mocow threat of nuclear weapon use in Ukraine, Gorgone and other international tourists find Hiroshima’s peace heritage message even more relevant today.
Also driven by the rebound in tourism after the lifting of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and the weak yen, the number of foreign tourists to the museum reached a record high by the end of December.
A volunteer guide at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, in which the museum is located, said the number of tourists from outside the prefecture has increased since the pandemic-related restrictions were lifted.
