Pokemon Go trainers are arriving in droves at a park that commemorates the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, one of the deadliest events in the human history.
The park is filled with Pokestops and other virtual sites that are spread around much of the real world. That is leading real life Pokemon Go players to arrive at the park, in the hope of catching creatures.
To stop those visitors, the city wants to have all of the locations removed by 6 August. That date is the anniversary of the bombing and the park is host to an annual ceremony that pays tribute to the victims.
The large park is meant to be a solemn memorial to the tens of thousands of people who died when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. But since the game was released in Japan last week it has also become just another place to catch Pokemon – like the Fukushima disaster zone.
Niantic declined to comment, saying it would not make public any discussions with a third party. The company allows people to request that locations are removed if they pose a risk for players, but not necessarily if they are inconvenient or inappropriate, and any removals must be made manually and aren’t guaranteed.
In the US, the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC has asked that it is excluded from the game and told people to stop playing in the meantime. This week the museum’s spokesman Andrew Hollinger said that its request had been granted.
