This week my new book on Armistice Day is being launched, and it seemed a good time to review this book on Sadako and her work for peace.
Sadako by Eleanor Coerr, illustrated by Ed
Young (Margaret
Hamilton Books, 1995)
45 pages
with full-page colour illustrations
Subjects:
World War Two, Japan, Hiroshima, nuclear war, bombs, family, picture books
Synopsis
Sadako
Sasaki was just two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped over her home
town, Hiroshima, in 1945. She was an ordinary little girl, surrounded
by a loving family, and a keen runner. The story starts with her waking up in
August 1954, excited about the Peace Day events at the Peace Park. In the
evening, she writes the name of her grandmother who died in the bomb blast and
launches it on the river where it floats along amidst rice-paper lanterns lit
up by candles.
But when
she was 11, Sadako started experiencing dizzy spells and was diagnosed with leukaemia,
“the atom bomb disease”. By February 1955, she was in hospital.
One day,
Sadako’s best friend Chizuko came to visit her in hospital. Chizuko brought
paper and scissors and cut a piece of gold paper
into a square. She folded it into a paper crane and told Sadako the old
Japanese story about how anyone who folded 1000 cranes would be granted a wish.
Sadako knew what her wish would be to get better, so she started folding paper
cranes.
Sadako
didn’t get her wish and she died a few months later, on 25 October 1955, ten
years after the atomic bomb was dropped.
But her name lives on, thanks to her determination, her hope for peace
and her wish for a better future, and her paper cranes have now become a symbol
of peace. After she died, Japanese children helped to raise money for the
Children’s Peace Memorial which now stands in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial
Park, with a statue of Sadako on the top, often surrounded and decorated by
thousands of paper cranes from all around the world. At the base is written:
“This is our cry, this is our prayer. Peace in the world”.
There is a lovely photo of Sadako and one of her paper cranes here.
You can read more here about some of
the original paper cranes, kept by her brother.
Reviews:
This review on The children's war has a
picture of Sadako with her relay team and calls it an “a perfect book
for introducing this difficult topic to young readers. There are no
detailed graphic images described about the war, the bomb or even to after
effects, only an acknowledgement of these things. There is some
controversy over whether or not Sadako actually did finish folding 1,000
cranes. Regardless of whether she did or didn't, there is much to be
learned from Sadako's story.
 |
| Sadako, in the middle of the front row, with her relay team |
About the author
This is a
nice start to Eleanor Cooer's bio on the Penguin website: “Eleanor Coerr
was born in Kamsack, Saskatchewan, Canada, and grew up in Saskatoon. Two of her
favorite childhood hobbies were reading and making up stories.” It also describes
how her fascination with Japan began as a child, her first visit to Japan – and
to Hiroshima - as a young reporter, and how she finally managed to get hold of
a copy of Sadako’s autobiography, Kokeshi. so she could
start writing her own book.
She died in 2010 and you can read her obituary here.
About the illustrator
Ed Young
was born in China and later moved to Hong Kong, then went to the United States
on a student visa to study architecture, but became an artist instead. He says he draws inspiration from the
philosophy of Chinese painting: “There are things that words do that pictures
never can, and likewise, there are images that words can never describe.”
Other books you might like:
Hiroshima no pika, written and illustrated by Toshi
Maruki, also tells the story of the day the bomb fell.
How to make paper cranes
You can learn how to make your own paper cranes here.
Or here (with an address for where to send them).
Or here (also with an address).
Links
You can
learn more about Sadako at the Kids Peace Station, Hiroshima.
