Of the more than 400 students and teachers who were in the school when the bomb exploded, only one student and one teacher survived. After a new school was built, this section of the original structure was kept as a museum, housing a small collection of photos and artifacts.

The Honkawa Elementary School Peace Museum is a museum of the Peace in Honkawacho, Naka-ku, Hiroshima, Japan. The school was the closest school to ground zero of the Hiroshima bombing. They lost about 400 students and more than 10 teachers, and the building took great amounts of damage from the atomic bomb dropped on August 6, 1945. The Peace Museum is the part of the school building with the basement of the former Hiroshima City Honkawa Elementary School; it is kept as a place to learn about the importance of peace. The museum is operated by the Honkawa Elementary School PTA, as well as former members of the PTA, and is cleaned and maintained by the students. The memorial service for the students and teachers killed in the blast is held every August 5 at the school. The school has also appeared in the manga Barefoot Gen, written by Keiji Nakazawa.