New displays of photos and personal belongings left by victims of atomic bombings were unveiled Wednesday at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
The museum's main building, where the new artifacts are being exhibited under the theme "Reality of the Atomic Bombing," was shown to the media a day before its reopening after two years of renovations.
A section on foreign victims who were in Hiroshima at the time of the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bombing by the U.S., including American prisoners of war, was added to the renovated building, which displays photos, drawings and personal belongings relating to the lives of victims, rather than explanations using text.
Displayed under spotlight in another low-lit section is a life-size picture of a girl standing in the middle of burned-out ruins, together with scorched student uniforms and monochrome photos of victims with their skin severely burned.
The total number of items on display remains almost unchanged from before, but the number of photos has increased from 112 to 173.
"I want visitors to recognize how horrible Hiroshima was on Aug. 6 (1945) ... through actual materials, and look at the grief of each victim and his or her family," Takuo Takigawa, head of the museum, told reporters.
The museum, which attracted around 1.52 million visitors in the year through March, will also continue to display paper cranes made by then-U.S. President Barack Obama, who visited Hiroshima in 2016.
The recent renovation program was the third large-scale renewal of the museum, which opened in 1955.
