The Peace Park sits on a low rise just north of the hypocenter and centres on Kitamura's monumental Peace Statue. Around the open lawn are sculptures donated by cities and countries from around the world — a Hiroshima-Nagasaki pair, a Soviet "Friendship of the Peoples" group, gifts from former East Germany, China, Brazil, Cuba. The park is busiest each year on 9 August, when the annual Peace Memorial Ceremony is held here with the prime minister and ambassadors present. The rest of the year it is quiet and contemplative, easily combined with the Atomic Bomb Museum and Hypocenter Park.
Nagasaki Peace Park
A story
The 10-metre Peace Statue at the north end of the park was unveiled in 1955 and sculpted by Nagasaki-born artist Seibo Kitamura. The raised right hand points at the threat of nuclear weapons; the extended left hand symbolizes peace; the closed eyes are in prayer for the victims. Critics called the figure overwrought when it was first unveiled, but it has become the city's most photographed image.