Hiroshima Never Again

Today is the 75th anniversary of the dropping of a nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
 
We visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in November 2017. This is the Children’s Peace Monument, inspired by a young Japanese girl, Sadako Sasaki. Sadako was two when the bomb was dropped and eleven when she developed leukaemia as a result of her exposure to radiation. She set out to fold paper cranes, a traditional Japanese symbol of longevity and happiness. If she folded one thousand cranes, she believed, she would be cured. She didn’t reach a thousand before she died but her classmates completed the project.
 
The focus at the Peace Park is on prevention – Hiroshima never again – and on children. In the photo, visiting school parties gather around the Monument and make presentations focusing on peace and disarmament.