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Sadako Sasaki

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File:Sadako Sasaki 2008 01.JPG
Statue in memory of Sadako Sasaki

Sadako Sasaki (佐々木 禎子, Sasaki Sadako, January 7, 1943 – October 25, 1955) was a Japanese girl who was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945, near her home by Misasa Bridge in Hiroshima, Japan.

Overview

Sadako was at work when the explosion occurred [citation needed], about three miles from Ground Zero. By November 1945, chicken pox had developed on her neck,stomach, face and behind her ears. In January 1946, blue spots had formed on her legs. Subsequently, she was diagnosed with leukemia (her mother referred to it as "an atom bomb disease").[1] She was hospitalized on February 21, 1955, and given, at the most, a year to live.

On August 3, 1946, Sadako's best friend Chizuko Hamamoto came to the hospital to visit and cut a golden piece of paper into a square to fold it into a paper crane, in reference to the ancient Japanese story that promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane. A popular version of the story is that she fell short of her goal of folding 1,000 cranes, having folded only 644 before her death, and that her friends completed the 1,000 and buried them all with her. This comes from the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. An exhibit which appeared in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum stated that by the end of August, 1955, Sadako had achieved her goal and continued to fold more cranes.[citation needed]

Though she had plenty of free time during her days in the hospital to fold the cranes, she lacked paper. She would use medicine wrappings and whatever else she could scrounge up. This included going to other patients' rooms to ask to use the paper from their get-well presents. Chizuko would bring paper from school for Sadako to use.

During her time in the hospital her condition progressively worsened. Around mid-October her left leg became swollen and turned purple. After her family urged her to eat something, Sadako requested tea on rice and remarked "It's good." Those were her last words. With her family around her, Sadako died on the morning of October 25, 1955 at the age of 12.

Memorial

After her death, Sadako's friends and schoolmates published a collection of letters in order to raise funds to build a memorial to her and all of the children who had died from the effects of the atomic bomb. In 1958, a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane was unveiled in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, also called the Genbaku Dome. At the foot of the statue is a plaque that reads:

"This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace on Earth."

There is also a statue of her in the Seattle Peace Park. Sadako has become a leading symbol of the impact of nuclear war. Sadako is also a heroine for many girls in Japan. Her story is told in some Japanese schools on the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. Dedicated to her, people all over Japan celebrate August 6 as the annual peace day.

Sadako's story has become familiar to many schoolchildren around the world through the novels The Day of the Bomb (1961, in German, Sadako will leben) by the Austrian writer Karl Bruckner and Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr, first published in 1977.[2] Sadako is also briefly mentioned in Children of the Ashes, Robert Jungk's historical account of the lives of Hiroshima victims and survivors. Her story continues to inspire millions to hope for lasting peace in the world.

In 1993 the animation studio Mushi Production produced Tsuru ni Notte - Tomoko no Boken (On a Paper Crane - Tomoko's Adventure), a half-hour anime theatrical feature directed by Seiji Arihara in which a sixth-grade schoolgirl named Tomoko (voiced by Sailor Moon voice actress Kotono Mitsuishi) encounters Sadako's spirit during a visit to the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima. The film has also been dubbed and released in English and French.

In 1969, the Dagestani national poet Rasul Gamzatov may have been inspired by Sadako's story to write his most famous poem, "Zhuravli". (Gamzatov may, however, have taken his inspiration from Soviet soldiers who died in the battle for Stalingrad. Associating cranes with World War II victims already appears, for example, in 1957 the Soviet movie Letyat Zhuravli.)

The jazz fusion band Hiroshima wrote a song called "Thousand Cranes" inspired by Sadako's story and as a tribute to the band's namesake city. Toward the end of the song, children's laughter can be heard. Another song inspired by Sadako's story is Fred Small's "Cranes Over Hiroshima". Japanese instrumental band Mono also created a song inspired by Sadako's story titled, "A Thousand Paper Cranes." Another song inspired by her story is "Cranes" written by Quelle. Thomas Harris, the author of The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal incorporated Sadako's story into the conversation between Hannibal Lecter and Lady Murasaki in Hannibal Rising, when Lady Murasaki asked Hannibal to help fold paper cranes for Sadako. Today, over 9 metric tonnes of paper cranes are delivered to Hiroshima annually. They are displayed in the Hiroshima Carp baseball stadium as a reminder to the world.

See also

References

  1. ^ Sasaki Fujiko. "Come back to me again, Sadako".
  2. ^ Coerr, Eleanor (1977, then republished 2004). Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. Puffin Books. p. 80. ISBN 0142401137. {{cite book}}: Check |authorlink= value (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); External link in |authorlink= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

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