Peace Day: August 6

August 6, 1945, was a day never to be forgotten in world history. It was the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in a desperate effort to end World War II. The city lay in ruins and the high death toll continued to rise for years to come. Every year after that, August 6 has been known as Peace Day. The story of Sadako, retold here, is a sad but inspiring story of one Japanese girl's fate and her classmates' response. In 1990, children of the Arroyo Del Oso Elementary School in Albuquerque, New Mexico heard this story and decided to begin their own children's peace movement. They formed the Kids Committee for the Children's Peace Statue to raise a sister statue in Los Alamos, NM, where the U.S. built the atomic bomb. The movement begun by Sadako's classmates and renewed by American children will live on for a new generation of peacemakers.

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
Adapted from the story by Carol
Heller and Elsie Williams in
Teaching Tolerance, Spring
1993.

Sadako was two years old on August 6, 1945, the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on her native city. Almost everyone in the neighborhood where Sadako lived lost at least one member of their family. But for Sadako's family, life had to go on. Shigeo and Fujiko Sasaki rebuilt their home and family barber shop, both of which had been destroyed by the bombing, and their family grew.

By the time Sadako was in the sixth grade, she was the swiftest runner in her class, so nimble that her classmates called her "monkey" the perfect nickname for a girl who ran as if she were leaping through space. Sadako was the star of the Bamboos, the finest of all sixth-grade relay teams in the district. This was partly because of Sadako's prowess and partly because of the Bamboos' coach and teacher, Mr. Nomura. Mr. Nomura believed in the power of unity and he invited the team to his house where he trained them. In school and on the track they called themselves the "Unity Club."

One afternoon while training at Mr.Nomura's house, Sadako became dizzy and began to shake. That winter she developed a swelling on her neck. She began to lose weight and always felt tired. When the swelling became larger her parents took her to the hospital and she was diagnosed with leukemia, "the A-bomb disease." For over 10 years she had been carrying the disease inside her. She now had less than one year to live.

In the hospital where Sadako had to live, classmates came to visit often to keep her up-todate on their studies and on the relay team. Sadako hoped to re -turn to school and the team, but as the months wore on she got weaker and weaker.

One day Sadako's friend Chizuko came to visit with asmall square of gold paper. "I know how to make you well," Chizuko said, as she folded the paper into a beautiful gold crane. "Remember the story of the crane? It lives for a thousand years, and when a sick person folds a thousand paper cranes, the gods will grant her wish and make her well." Chizuko handed Sadako the gold crane and a fresh piece of paper. With tears in her eyes, Sadako folded her first crane. "Nine hundred and ninety-nine more," she thought to herself and she'd be back in school and running for her team.

Sadako began to fold paper cranes with the same devotion she had given to running. When family and friends visited they too made cranes and hung them from the ceiling of her room. But there was no magic in the cranes and Sadaiko weakened until finally, in the late morning of October 25, 1955, 12-year-old Sadako Sasaki fell into a sleep from which she never awakened. In her hand she held her gold paper crane.

Her classmates could never forget their friend nor the injustice of her dying. They asked many questions of their teacher Mr. Nomura: "Why did Sadako have to die? What was her sin? Had she ever hurt anyone?" Through the death of their friend, war became very real and the innocent lives the bomb claimed seemed an intolerable wrong. Under Mr. Nomura's guidance, Sadako's classmates began a peace movement to honor her. They sent letters and petitions throughout the country telling Sadako's story and of their idea to build a statue to memorialize her and all the children who were victims of the A-bomb. To Sadako's classmates the statue would be both a memorial and a statement of commitment to work toward world peace. Their statement read: "We mourn for the souls of the children and students who were sacrificed to the war, and we wish to comfort our friends who suffered by erecting a 'Statue for the Children of the A-bomb. "We pledge to work toward a peaceful world that will never again wage war."

Thousands of children throughout the world responded with paper cranes and donations. On May 5, 1958, a children's peace statue was unveiled in Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima. On its pedestal stands a life -size image of Sadako Sasaki, her hands raised to the sky. In them she holds a golden paper crane.

Every year, thousands of students from every corner of the globe send garlands of paper cranes to Hiroshima. The ones are collected by the mayor and on August 6, Peace Day, they are hung on the statue as a message of peace.

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Last updated August 11, 2002 by clf@uua.org