(July 29, 1998, The Chugoku Shimbun)

Promoting people's Anti-nuclear awareness during 1 August to 16 August.

The visiting hours of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum will be extended for an hour from 9:00 to 19:00. This will be put into practice from 1 to 6 August. The purpose of its extension is to be able to give an opportunity to many people so that they have the knowledge about consequences of nuclear devastation as the Memorial Day approaches.

The museum usually closes at 18:00 and there is an hour to be extended. As long as visitors come to the museum by 18:30, they stay until 19:00. Like every year, there will be free admission for visitors under the age of 18 from 6 to 9 August. (The fee is 30 yen.)

The total number of visitors last year was 1390,000. 13 % of them visited the museum in August. The museum once extended the visiting hour temporary when Hiroshima hosted the '94 Asian Games. They said, "We have many visitors from other prefectures and overseas especially in August."

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum calls to visitors, "Since India and Pakistan are in a seemingly nuclear test competition, we want the visitors to take their time and look at the artifacts in order to deepen their anti-nuclear awareness.