One of the most praised features of Pokémon Go is that it's brought people together and to landmarks like libraries and parks through the use of Pokéstops. With free items and a higher chance of catching pocket monsters, people from all over are drawn to these locations. That's all well and good when it's a restaurant, or similarly frivolous place to visit, not so much with places of sober contemplation though, like war memorials.
Fortunately Niantic has been responding quite quickly to requests to move Pokéstops, one of which was located at the Holocaust Memorial in Washington DC, while another was at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in Japan. Those are both now gone and just in time too, as it's only a few hours until the latter holds an important ceremony commemorating the losses during the second world war.
Before now, as AP points out, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial was full of gyms, Pokéstops, Pokémon and of course, trainers, who flocked to the area to catch what they could. Not exactly the crowd you want when you're trying to remember the deaths of over 140,000 people.
"We were so relieved," said city official Tatsuya Sumida. "We were worried if those Pokémon were really going to go away in time."
"We consider the park a sacred place where we pray for the victims of the atomic bombings," he added.
It seems likely that such gyms and Pokéstops will be removed all over the world in due course.
Image source: Wikimedia
