Peace Memorial park Hiroshima

We travel to Japan with four children. Older sons have studied the second world war history in school - both about Hitler and atomic bombs. But my youngest one is still at primary school ( 8 y o). He can be very emotinal about terrible and dark things. He will cry about the girl with the cranes, I know him. I Think maybe we should go apart in Hiroshima for some hours. Hubby could take older boys to Peace Memorial Park and I could go anywhere else with my youngest. Or what do you think? Is it any parts of park we should avoid with him?

The park itself is just a park. It has many trees and shaded areas. It has monuments for the different peoples who perished. The monument for the children will have the paper cranes, though when I last was there (March 12), most of the display cases were empty due to it being the end of the school season. They recycle them into paper notebooks and pens they sell in the Rest House on the premises.

It is in the museum where you may run into difficulties for the more emotional children, as there are life-sized dioramas that can be quite unnerving. You can avoid the museum with the youngest child and still enjoy the Peace Park, perhaps have a dessert on the riverbank while the rest of your family visits the museum if they wish.

Your 8 yrs old son or daughter can understand what it is there if he/she has basic knowledge of war. He/She can not forget the museum forever.
It's a very hard decision, but, if I'm an international visitor who has a 8 yrs old child, I won't take him/her there because he/she can not understand why the museum is there for.
You need basic knowledge about war to visit Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is just an ordinary park. No scary things there.

As has been mentioned. The park is a park. Do not visit the museum unless you are prepared to deal with the emotional results. I visited in my early 50's and was uncontrollable by the end of it. As has been mentioned, it is an unforgettable experience. There is plenty else to see in Hiroshima and I think your idea of splitting the party for a while is a good one.

I was there for my first time when i was 11y, after learning about it at school. I remember it was quite a serious experience we all got affected by, especially as we knew the cause of it. It's still an important (visual) experience to show how horrific this kind of weapon is.

In my opinion 8y is a bit too early.

Thank you very much. Me and my youngest will skip museum .

We just returned from our visit and Hiroshima was the last stop. The park was beautiful to visit, the fire etc. The museum however was very tough, I think without doubt you are making the right decision. The silence of the people, the emotions, i have never had an experience like that, still get shivers.

of course the decision is up to you, but japanese school classes also go there at about that age.
i think it is important for the kids to understand and face the horrors of war and while it may be a horrible moment, it makes kids remember it for their whole life. i remember watching schindler's list at very young age and i am pretty sure it made me a better person for the rest of my life.

It is however different when you are from Japan and you learn about the history in a different way. Those children from Japan that go there, have learned about the events in school and are taken there prepared.
It is different when you are on holidays with your parents, having a good time and you are put to see a display of people suffering and seeing maybe people watching them cry.
When you enter the museum, there are human sized children "wax dolls" rising from the ashes with the city destroyed the background and their clothes burned to the skin. It's a scene from a horror movie, only it is not, because you know it was real.

I saw some parents taking their children away from the pictures of the radiation effect.

And you dont have to go in the museum to tell your children about the events that happened. You will see the park, the A-bomb dome and that's already quite a bit of reality.

well, next to the piece park, there is a huge arcade mall, with many cool games for young kids. he will enjoy those probably more then :-)