How To See Japan In One Week: Part Three
Panoramic view of Hiroshima after bomb
I surely need not dwell on the gripping horror of all that we saw in the Hiroshima Peace Park and Museum. I will say that it was a profound experience in my life to visit this haunted place. I wish that everyone would have the chance to know of these events in such detail, especially those involved with the outrageous current production of atomic bombs and the like.
Sadako and a Thousand Paper Cranes
A vivacious and bright child, Sadako was exposed to the A-Bomb at the age of two, and miraculously walked away seemingly unharmed. Parents and teachers marveled at the girl's love of life. Eight years after the bomb, however, Sadako became ill. What was first thought to be a bad flu was later diagnosed as leukemia. Like so many citizens of Hiroshima who seemed physically untouched by the catastrophe, for 10-year-old Sadako it would not be so. Sadako would struggle with cancer for two years, but not without a goal. Sadako believed that if she was able to complete 1,000 origami cranes she would be cured. Sadako died less than two years later, cranes unfinished. But Sadako's classmates rallied together to take up their friend's plight, and together finished her thousand cranes. Today millions of cranes are donated from around the world in a common hope that there be no more Sadakos, no more Hiroshimas.
Your word in God's ear, as we use to say in Germany.
What was Japan's tragedy was Germanies luck. As Germany had surrendered already in May 1945 the country evaded an atomic bomb. There had already been plans to drop them - I think Berlin and Cologne...
NO MORE WARS ANYWHERE!!!