市長:有 1千萬人參觀“大和博物館”是“奇蹟”

A few weeks ago the Yomiuri News on-line reported the following:

「大和ミュージアム」１千万人で市長「奇跡的」

2015年05月25日 11時12分

                       

　広島県呉市の大和ミュージアム（市海事歴史科学館）の来館者が２４日、１０００万人を突破した。

　２００５年にオープンし、４月に開館１０周年を迎えたばかりでの達成は、地方の博物館としては異例のハイペース。同館は「今後も展示の内容を工夫し、足を運んでもらえる施設に」と意気込む。

　大和ミュージアムは旧海軍の戦艦「大和」を１０分の１大に再現した全長２６・３メートルの模型を中心に、乗組員の遺書や引き揚げられた遺品、特攻兵器などの資料を展示。来館者は毎年９０万人前後あり、県外や海外からが７割を占めている。

　平和学習の場として、修学旅行生の人気を集めていることも伸びを後押し。今年は戦後７０年とあって近代史への関心が高まっており、ゴールデンウィーク中の来館者は昨年より３割増え、夏頃と予想した１０００万人到達が早まった。

　１０００万人目は愛知県春日井市の高校２年生女子（１６）。記念式典で小村和年・呉市長らとくす玉を割り、節目を祝った。小村市長は「１０年での１０００万人到達は、地方の博物館では奇跡的な数字。これからも未来に平和のメッセージを発信していきたい」とあいさつ。高校生は「光栄です。戦争の歴史も詳しく学べて勉強になった」と話した。

　戸高一成館長は「近代史を扱う博物館は少なく、『大和』のネームバリューだけが成功の要因ではない」と分析。「市民や自治体が、我が町の博物館として熱心に協力してくれている。地元の支えのおかげ」と感慨深げに語った。（松本裕平）

(試譯文)

On the 24^th (May) the number of visitors to the Yamamoto museum in Kure city, Hiroshima (the City Maritime History Museum) broke through 10 million people.

 It was opened in April 2005 and just had its 10th opening anniversary. As a local museum its quick pace was exceptional. The same museum expressed enthusiastically that “from now on we would give attention to the contents of the exhibition and to our facilities to attract you to go there".

 Yamamoto Museum focused on the 1/10 scale reproduction of an old navy battleship "Yamamoto" that had a full length of 26.3 meters. Suicide notes of the crews and salvaged artifacts, suicide weapons etc. were exhibited. There were about 900,000 visitors every year, 70 percent of them came from outside the prefecture or foreign countries.

 As a place to learn about peace, the visits by school trips students made it popular and supported the museum’s growth. This year was the 70th years after the war; the interest in modern history was rising. During the Golden Week visitors increased by 30% compared with last year, and the expectation on reaching 10 million people by the summer was realized early.

 The ten millionth visitor was Aichi (16), a high school second year female student from Kasugai city. In a commemorative ceremony an ornamental scented ball was pulled open by Kure Mayor Omura Kazutoshi and others and a milestone was celebrated. In his greeting Mayor Omura said "10 million people arrived in 10 years is a miraculous number for a local museum. I would also like to send a peaceful message from here to the future". He said to high school students that "it is honor. History of war could be learned in detail and studied".

 Director Todaka Kazushige analyzed that "there are few museums which deal with modern history, and the name value of "Yamamoto" is not the only successful factor". With deep emotion he explained that "citizens and autonomous body were eagerly giving cooperation to the museum in my town. Thank you for the local support".

I look forward to visiting this museum in the future.