And move on through the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, living through scenes of the doomsday that played out here on August 6, 1945...
A charred tricycle...
Steps of a bank - a man was sitting here waiting for the bank to open when the explosion happened. The stone of the steps turned whitish while the area where he was sitting turned black...
Deformed ceramic and glass...
Fused roof tiles...
Fused ink bottles...
Various damaged articles...
Each of the items displayed embodies the grief, anger, or pain of the people who suffered during and after the blast...
Message on a roof tile telling the fate of Sato family...
The story of Sadako is very moving...
Sadako Sasaki, 2 years old, was at home when the explosion occurred - she was about 2 kilometres away from ground zero. She was blown out of the window and her mother ran out to find her. Miraculously, her mother found Sadako alive with no apparent injuries. While they were fleeing, Sadako and her mother were caught in the black rain, contaminated rain that usually falls after a nuclear blast.
All appeared normal and Sadako grew up like any other girl, becoming an athlete in school.
In 1955, she was diagnosed with acute malignant lymph gland leukemia and was hospitalized on February, and was given, at the most, a year to live. By the time she was admitted, her white blood cell count was six times higher compared with the levels of an average child.
In August 1955, after two days of treatment, she was moved into a room with a roommate, a junior high school student who was two years older than her. She told Sadako about the Japanese legend which promises that anyone who folds one thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish, and taught her how to fold the origami cranes.
Although she had plenty of free time during her days in the hospital, Sadako lacked paper to make a thousand origami cranes that could possibly save her. She would use medicine wrappings and whatever else she could get. She went to other patients' rooms to ask to use the paper from their get-well presents. Her best friend, Chizuko Hamamoto, would bring paper from school for Sadako to use.
And it is said that Sadako fell short of her goal of folding 1000 cranes, having folded only 644 before her death. Her friends completed the 1000 and buried them all with her.
During her stay in 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 tasty". Those were her last words. With her family around her, Sadako died on October 25, 1955 at the age of 12.
Shocked by her death, her classmates led a campaign to build a monument to mourn the children who died in the atomic bombing. With the support of students in more than 3,100 schools around Japan and in nine other countries, including England, they were able to build this bronze statue that stands nine meters high.
Touched and shocked by the doomsday that played out here nearly 70 years back, I was convinced that the human race deserves much better!
No comments:
Post a Comment