Everyone inside the Promotion Hall, which was almost at the epicenter of the blast, was killed instantly.

Following the city's destruction the hall was scheduled for demolition, but in 1966 it was decided that the renamed 'Atomic Bomb Dome' (原爆ドーム) would become a memorial.

all alone
in silence at the dome,
Hiroshima Day
黙然とひとりドームにヒロシマ忌
-Shigemoto Yasuhiko (重本泰彦).

Perhaps the most iconic anti-nuclear symbol of our times, the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall was built in 1915 and was immortalized on August 6th 1945.

The Atomic Bomb Dome and Peace Flame -which will burn until nuclear disarmament- as seen through the Memorial Cenotaph (慰霊碑).

The epitaph reads:
安らかに眠って下さい 過ちは 繰返しませぬから
'Rest in Peace, for the error shall not be repeated'
-Saika Tadayoshi (雑賀忠義).

"Japan learned from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that the tragedy wrought by nuclear weapons must never be repeated and that humanity and nuclear weapons cannot coexist."

-Daisaku Ikeda (池田大作 1928-).