Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum
長崎原爆資料館
The principal museum documenting the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Opened in April 1996 to replace the aging Nagasaki International Culture Hall, the largely underground facility houses artifacts, photographs, and exhibits conveying the reality of nuclear destruction and advocating for lasting peace.
Images
History
The Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum stands on a hill overlooking the hypocenter where the "Fat Man" plutonium bomb detonated at 11:02 a.m. on August 9, 1945, killing an estimated 40,000 people instantly and approximately 74,000 by the end of that year.
The museum's origins trace to 1955, when the Nagasaki International Culture Hall began displaying atomic bomb artifacts. As the collection grew and the building deteriorated, Nagasaki City undertook a comprehensive rebuilding project. The old hall was dismantled in July 1993, and the new Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum opened in April 1996 at a cost of approximately 6.6 billion yen. The new facility occupies a total floor area of 7,949.73 square meters on a 15,391.53 square meter site — roughly three times the size of its predecessor.
The building is a striking largely underground structure with a glass dome, designed to appear as a protrusion from a verdant hillside. The western facade and eastern rear incorporate stones from the Goto Islands. Visitors descend a spiral walkway displaying a timeline from Nagasaki's pre-war international trading history through the events of August 1945.
Key exhibits include a life-size replica of the Fat Man bomb with a cutaway view of its plutonium core, a wall clock frozen at 11:02 a.m. (the moment of detonation), heat-fused glass bottles recovered from a shop 400 meters from the hypocenter, a charred schoolgirl's lunchbox with carbonized rice, scorched roof tiles, and a replica of the bomb-scarred sidewall of the destroyed Urakami Cathedral — once the largest Catholic church in East Asia.
The first floor houses a library with approximately 25,000 volumes on atomic weapons and peace. The museum connects via underground passages to the adjacent National Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Victims Memorial Peace Prayer Hall. In fiscal year 2024, the museum welcomed 810,825 visitors, its highest attendance since 2001, with 122,412 foreign visitors representing a 26.1% increase.