Modern Relics: The Sanctification of A-Bomb Objects in the Hiroshima Museum

In April 2017, a group of mannequins was removed during the renovation of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The new exhibit instead focuses on objects left by the dead (ihin) as well as survivor testimonies, representing the latest change in a seventy-year controversy regarding museal representations of the devastation wrought by the atomic bomb. Controversies paralleled debates over Holocaust memorialization and the treatment of objects left by victims. The following examines the history of A-bomb objects in the Hiroshima museum, most importantly, the way relics have been discussed, exhibited, and debated. This evolution has elevated relics to the status of sacred objects, central to commemoration and memorialization.