(CNN) -- Almost 70 years after the U.S. military dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, effectively ending World War II, the site of the devastation remains one of the most popular tourist attractions in the country. And it appears to be getting more popular. According to a recent report in The Japan Times, visits to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum by foreign tourists hit a record high of 200,086 in 2013. Local officials confirm that the memorial site is attracting an increasing number of tourists to study the burnt wreckage, painful witness testimonies and human shadows left permanently visible after the atomic bomb explosion's incandescent destruction.
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The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum is one of TripAdvisor's top Japan travel sites
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The museum attracted a record number of foreign tourists in 2013
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Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum features photos, films, scientific explanations of the explosion
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When the @placeholder dropped the bomb on August 6, 1945, it exploded just above the building, but didn't totally destroy it because the immediate blast and heat buffered the air at ground zero.
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The atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima from an @placeholder B-29 bomber.
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"The impression of @placeholder that visitors take away seems to be affected by whether they have had the opportunity to meet and communicate with local people," Abe said.