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Here are some photos from the Hiroshima Peace Park in Japan, the paper cranes all over the place are amazing and chilling... -
Visitors to Peace Memorial Park see brightly colored paper cranes everywhere. These paper cranes come originally from the ancient Japanese tradition of origami or paper folding, but today they are known as a symbol of peace. They are folded as a wish for peace in many countries around the world. This connection between paper cranes and peace can be traced back to a young girl named Sadako Sasaki, who died of leukemia ten years after the atomic bombing.Paper cranes and the Children's Peace Monument - Link.Sadako was two years old when she was exposed to the A-bomb. She had no apparent injuries and grew into a strong and healthy girl. However, nine years later in the fall when she was in the sixth grade of elementary school (1954), she suddenly developed signs of an illness. In February the following year she was diagnosed with leukemia and was admitted to the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital. Believing that folding paper cranes would help her recover, she kept folding them to the end, but on October 25, 1955, after an eight-month struggle with the disease, she passed away.
Sadako's death triggered a campaign to build a monument to pray for world peace and the peaceful repose of the many children killed by the atomic bomb. The Children's Peace Monument that stands in Peace Park was built with funds donated from all over Japan. Later, this story spread to the world, and now, approximately 10 million cranes are offered each year before the Children's Peace Monument.
We are amazed and chilled by different things. Ten million is coincidentally the number of Chinese killed by Japan's military. Japan's war against humanity started in 1934. They had quite a long run before they were bombed out of the mass murder business.
Yet from the first days after the war ended, Japanese history began with the bombing of Hiroshima, which seems to have come out of the blue like Godzilla. Think of all those poor innocent cherry blossoms.
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That park is an amazing area. The original bridge that they targeted was not blown up by the bomb -- because it was directly under it, it withstood the forces much better than the buildings that were further out and blown over. Make sure you visit the small cemetery nearby -- these tombstones were under the blast, too.
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To Fredex
I agree to a point because it always seems like thats when Chinese history also began and the only time the Chinese people have ever suffered horribly. Never mind the Opium wars with the British or Mao and his Cultural Revolution the forced abortion and sterilizations the Chinese Government performed this year alone. How about the rise in birth defects in China from the rise in pollution or Tiananmen square quietly forgotten about. You know the Monument is more about preventing another nuclear strike if you think every nation should just start slinging them around you need help.
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When I saw the A-bomb dome, I sat on the bench and cried. Hiroshima is a holy place. There are no words.
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