Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and Museum Visitors Surge After Obama Visit

Above, the cenotaph and the Peace Museum in Hiroshima. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park and Museum has been a popular tourist attraction, but the numbers of visitors surged since President Obama's visit last month.

Kyodo News reported:

The number of visitors to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum rose by about 40 percent from a year earlier in the four weeks following U.S. President Barack Obama's visit, the museum said Tuesday. 

"It is a sign of increased interest due to the Obama effect," said an official of the museum, which put the number of visitors at 161,720 from May 28 -- the day after Obama's historic visit to the western Japan city -- to June 27. 

Of the estimated visitors, 31,348 were foreign nationals, an increase of more than 50 percent from the year before, according to the museum.

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