So, I've been reading up a bit on Pure Land Buddhism, and the origin of Amitabha Buddha, which it centres around.
According to the (pretty well written) Wikipedia entry, the story comes from 3 sutras thought to have been written in what's now the Pakistan area in the first and second centuries (CE), and were translated into Chinese as early as the second and third centuries. (It's curious that this was happening at the same time, pretty much, as the compilation of the New Testament was happening in the Christian churches.)
Anyway, the trivia bit comes from Wikipedia too: the Longer Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra (or Infinite Life Sutra) has a passage that is inscribed on the Peace Bell at Hiroshima, with the English translation given as:
The lord of vast light, incomparable and infinite, has illuminated all Buddha countries in all the quarters, he has quieted passions, all sins and errors, he has quieted the fire in the walk of hell.
That does seem a good line for such a memorial.
Anyway, it seems that no one seriously argues that Amitabha was a historical figure, unlike Siddhartha Gautama, the "original" Buddha, about whom it seems (mostly) agreed that he really existed as a founder of a new religion. (An interesting article on whether the historicity of his story is actually important or not can be found at Tricycle.)
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