Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims

Like its counterpart in Hiroshima, the hall was constructed as a place to remember and pray for those who died in the 1945 atomic bombing, with photos, memoirs and personal accounts of the event.

It also offers information on international co-operation and exchange activities concerning medical treatment for sufferers of nuclear accidents.

[1] The subterranean interior of the building contains a reference area, a large conference room, an anteroom with a bank of monitors showing photographs of the victims, and a stylized remembrance hall in which 12 pillars of light symbolize hope for peace.

As viewed from the outside, the top of the memorial consists mainly of a tree-lined basin of water through which the 12 pillars of light continue to rise from below.

The 2005 exhibition was held at the Peace Museum in Chicago, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the bombing as well as a conference in New York which reviewed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.