|
was a Japanese girl who was two years old when the American atomic bomb Little Boy was dropped on August 6, 1945, near her home next to the Misasa Bridge in Hiroshima, Japan. Her grandmother rushed back to the house and was never to be seen again. Sadako is remembered through the story of a thousand origami cranes before her death, and is to this day a symbol of innocent victims of war. ==Overview== Sadako was at home when the explosion occurred, about away from ground zero. She was blown out of the window and her mother ran out to find her, suspecting she may be dead, but instead finding her two-year-old daughter alive with no apparent injuries. While they were fleeing, Sadako and her mother were caught in the black rain. Sadako grew up like any other girl, becoming an important member of her class relay team. In November 1954, Sadako developed swellings on her neck and behind her ears. In January 1955, purpura had formed on her legs. Subsequently, she was diagnosed with acute malignant lymph gland leukemia (her mother referred to it as "an atom bomb disease").〔Sasaki Fujiko. ("Come back to me again, Sadako". )〕 She was hospitalized on February 20, 1955, and given, at the most, a year to live. Several years after the atomic explosion, an increase in leukemia was observed especially among children. By the early 1950s, it was clear that the leukemia was caused by radiation exposure.〔Radiation Effects Research Foundation (former Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission) ("Leukemia risks among atomic-bomb survivors" ) Accessed 2011-10-30〕 She was admitted as a patient to the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital for treatment and blood transfusions on February 21, 1955. 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 student who was two years older than her. It was this roommate that told her the Japanese legend that promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish and she taught Sadako how to fold paper cranes. A popular version of the story is that Sadako fell short of her goal of folding 1,000 cranes, having folded only 644 before her death, and that her friends completed the 1,000 and buried them all with her. (In a black and white documentary, her father said that she had made approximately 1,400 paper cranes which his parents had kept. He showed them in the documentary. Her classmates made 1,000 paper cranes which were buried with her). This comes from the book ''Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes''. An exhibit which appeared in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum stated that by the end of August 1955, Sadako had achieved her goal and continued to fold more cranes.〔http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/virtual/VirtualMuseum_e/exhibit_e/exh0107_e/exh01071_e.html〕 Though she had plenty of free time during her days in the hospital to fold the cranes, she lacked paper. She would use medicine wrappings and whatever else she could scrounge up. This included going to other patients' rooms to ask to use the paper from their get-well presents. Chizuko would bring paper from school for Sadako to use. During her time in the 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 the morning of October 25, 1955 at the age of 12. After her death, Sadako's body was examined by the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) for researching the effects of the atomic bomb on the human body. It was later revealed that the ABCC had also conducted tests on Sadako while she was alive for the same reasons. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sadako Sasaki」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|