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Description
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One of the most iconic and internationally well-known figures of the atomic bombing and Hiroshima is Sadako Sasaki. Sadako was exposed to the atomic bombing at the age of two in her home in Kusunoki-cho (about 1.6 kilometers from the hypocenter) with her older brother Masahiro. She died due to subacute lymphoid leukemia about 10 years later in October 1955 at the age of 12.
Despite being exposed to the atomic bomb in her childhood, Sadako led a healthy daily life in the days after the war. She was a young girl who dreamed of becoming a junior high school physical education teacher. However, she became ill at the end of 1954 and after an examination by the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) in February 1955 she was diagnosed with lymphoid leukemia and admitted to the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital. Grappling with her fear of death as she battled the disease, Sadako folded one thousand paper cranes hoping for a cure for the incurable disease and happiness for her family but sadly she passed away on October 25 that same year. According to her doctors radiation from the atomic bombing was the cause of her illness. Sadako’s life, which showed hope, courage, and love in the midst of despair, and demonstrating once again the horror of the atomic bombing was conveyed to the world through the writings of Robert Jungk (p. 187), Eleanor Coerr, and others.
The Children’s Peace Monument in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park was created by her classmates at Noboricho Junior High School who raised funds to mourn her and the other children and students who died in the bombing. The statue was created by sculptor Kazuo Kikuchi based on the motif of Sadako, and was unveiled on Children’s Day, May 5, 1958. Sadako and her one thousand folded paper cranes continue to be an icon of peaceful thoughts for people around the world in the 21st century, and some of the folded paper cranes sent to Hiroshima City from within Japan and abroad are displayed at the Children’s Peace Monument.
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