Choose wisely. Connect locally.Add your business 
Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture on Japan's Seto Inland Sea, a city of about 1.2 million known around the world as the first city struck by an atomic bomb, on 6 August 1945, and today as a city of peace. Rebuilt across the delta of the Ota River, it is green, welcoming and easy to explore by streetcar.
The Peace Memorial Park, the ruined Atomic Bomb Dome and the Peace Memorial Museum tell the story of the bombing and the city's call for a world without nuclear weapons. Close by are the grounds of Hiroshima Castle and the Shukkeien Garden, and evenings belong to Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki and to the red-clad crowds cheering the Carp baseball team.
A short train and ferry ride away, Miyajima island is home to the Itsukushima Shrine and its great torii gate standing in the sea, with forest trails and a ropeway up Mount Misen. Spring cherry blossom and autumn leaves are the loveliest seasons to visit.
The Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima is the shell of the former Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, designed by Czech architect Jan Letzel and completed in 1915. One of the few buildings left standing near the blast of 6 August 1945, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park covers the former Nakajima district at the heart of the city, close to where the atomic bomb exploded in 1945. Planned by architect Kenzo Tange, it holds the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims, the Flame of Peace and many memorials beside the rivers.
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, opened in 1955 in the Peace Memorial Park, tells the story of the atomic bombing through the belongings of victims, photographs and the words of survivors. Its exhibits were fully renewed in 2019, and a visit takes at least an hour or two.
The Children's Peace Monument in Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park honours Sadako Sasaki and the thousands of children killed by the atomic bomb. Sadako folded paper cranes while ill with leukaemia, and visitors from around the world still send strings of colourful cranes to hang here.
Hiroshima Castle was built from 1589 by the warlord Mori Terumoto and was destroyed by the atomic bomb in 1945. Its concrete keep, rebuilt in 1958, closed to visitors in 2026 over earthquake safety, but the moat, grounds and rebuilt Ninomaru gate and turrets can still be explored.
Shukkeien Garden in central Hiroshima was begun in 1620 for the feudal lord Asano Nagaakira by his retainer and tea master Ueda Soko. Paths circle a central pond with islands, tea houses and an arched stone bridge, and the garden reopened in 1951 after damage in the 1945 bombing.
The Hiroshima Museum of Art, founded in 1978, stands in Hiroshima Central Park close to the castle grounds. Its galleries trace European art from Romanticism and Impressionism to Fauvism and Picasso, alongside a fine collection of modern Japanese paintings in Western style.
Mazda Stadium, officially Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium Hiroshima, opened in 2009 a short walk from Hiroshima Station and is home to the Hiroshima Toyo Carp baseball team. It holds about 32,000 fans, and on game nights its stands turn red with some of the most passionate supporters in Japan.
Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima island, a short ferry ride from Hiroshima, is famous for its great vermilion torii gate that seems to float on the sea at high tide. The shrine halls, linked by boardwalks over the water, date largely from rebuilding in 1168 and form a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Mount Misen, 535 metres high, is the sacred mountain of Miyajima island near Hiroshima, climbed on forest trails or by the Miyajima Ropeway. Its summit of huge granite boulders looks out over the islands of the Seto Inland Sea, and its northern slopes are covered in protected old forest.
Daisho-in Temple on Miyajima, near Hiroshima, is a Shingon Buddhist temple complex at the foot of Mount Misen, inside the World Heritage area of Itsukushima. Its stairways are lined with spinning prayer wheels and many small statues, and its maples glow red and gold each autumn.
Okunoshima, a small island off Takehara in Hiroshima Prefecture, is known as Rabbit Island for the thousands of tame wild rabbits that roam it. It also has a dark past as the site of a secret poison gas factory built in 1925, explained in a small museum on the island.
No reviews yet. Been to Hiroshima? Be the first to share your experience.
Share what you loved, what to skip and tips for other travelers.
Log in to write a reviewBeen to Hiroshima? Add your best shots to the gallery.
Log in to add photosPhoto: DXR, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: そらみみ, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Jakub Hałun, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Geertchaos, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Evelyn-rose, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Photo: Aude, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: 大江万里, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Photo: Mnd, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Jakub Hałun, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: FlyingToaster, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
Photo: Francisco Anzola, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Photo: Bernard Gagnon, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Oilstreet, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5
Photo: Jakub Hałun, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Jakub Hałun, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Balon Greyjoy, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Photo: DXR, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: そらみみ, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Jakub Hałun, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Photo: Taisyo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Taisyo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Taisyo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
Photo: calflier001, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Hyppolyte de Saint-Rambert, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Photo: Voogd075 at Dutch Wikipedia (Original text: Charles Voogd), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Rachelle Haun, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Photo: by Reggaeman, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: by Reggaeman, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: by Reggaeman, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Jakub Hałun, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Hyppolyte de Saint-Rambert, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Photo: Hyppolyte de Saint-Rambert, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Photo: Hyppolyte de Saint-Rambert, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Photo: Taisyo at Japanese Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
Photo: At by At, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: HKT3012, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: JordyMeow, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Nanosanchez, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Photo: Jakub Hałun, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Jakub Hałun, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: As6022014, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Daderot, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Photo: Daderot, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Photo: Daderot, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Photo: Steffen Flor, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Tak H., Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Vickerman625, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Photo: Addy Cameron-Huff, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
