SADAKO SASAKI

This is historical nonfiction, about the valour and courage of a two-year-old Japanese girl who, not minding her tender age fought with Leukemia which had killed thousands of people around Japan. 

She was one of the people who lost her life on a hospital bed while praying for peace around the world and harmony among mankind. She was sick on a bed for 10 years but never lost optimism. People around the world did not forget her courage and in her memoir, a peace park at Hiroshima was built with her statue.

There are thousands of books and novels written on her autobiography and the favours she did to mankind, she lost the wish of living a long life and instead wished for peace and unity so no other kid would ever have to endure what she had gone through.

Her story stretches back 75 years ago, on 16 August 1945. The sky was crystal clear with white puffy clouds dwelling freely when a small black dot appeared in the sky. It was a plane. Fighters get known as the “THE ENOLA GEY”. The plane was accompanied by two pilots; Paul Tibet and Thomas Freebie were observing the streets below them. They contacted the radio code and waited for the order.

After 10 minutes they heard Private Richard Nelson, who was working as a radar operator at the control room, said: “wait for my three counts and release.” He instructed in his nonchalant style. Paul slowly made his hand over to the red button which would release the bomb.

“ONE,” Nelson’s voice echoed in their headphones. “TWO! ------------------THREE” Paul hit the red button on the counter. Slowly, the bay door at the end opened and the “LITTLE BOY (name of the atom bomb dropped at Hiroshima)” slid off the rack.

It made its way to the ground at remarkable speed. And then it hit. “BOOM!” The uproar came from the ground below and an explosion followed. A cloud of smoke rose from the ground. The pilots nodded to each other and Paul said, “Target achieved,” and they heard Nelson’s confirmation.

Down below a scene of hell had been created. The explosion caused smoke and debris was causing people to suffocate. On the other hand, as soon as the bomb had exploded it killed 80,000 people instantly. Faces were unrecognizable, bodies were completely burned and some were lying like dust on the streets. People were choking and gasping for breath and yelling for help. The ones who were hurt were trying to breathe. And then from the corner, a small child appeared. His face was smirked with dust and his left hand was not with his body anymore. Blood was running all over his body, soaking him. “Mama! Mama! Where are you?” suddenly he tripped over a dead body and yelled in pain as his open wound touched the ground. He was crying very hard not just in pain but at the scene of sabotage and destruction. Bones were crept out of bodies and intestines were fallen outside. The child slowly closed out his eyes and dozed off.

****

The whole city had been evacuated and 140,000 people had died while the deadly disease that was spread from the smoke of explosion, cancer called leukaemia was becoming deadly and killing hundreds of thousands of people and unfortunately there was still no cure for cancer.

Many children were dying due to cancer due to there already weak immune system and one small girl came into the lines of the victims. Sasaki was the only girl in the home with her elder brother. They both were playing on the monkey bar on a clear afternoon in July when suddenly, while Sasaki was hanging from the monkey bar, a severe ace arose in her head and without realizing she passed out.

She slowly opened her eyes and saw the anxious face of her brother looking down at her. “Shisutā!” he exclaimed in Japanese. He ran out of the hospital to inform her mother that she had finally woken up. The door opened and a group of people entered. Her classmates and teachers were there to meet her. “What happened to me?” she inquired. The entire group exchanged glances and finally, her mother spoke to her, tears choking her words. “Leukemia, dear, you have Leukemia,” and saying that she burst to tears, while Sasaki stared with a blank. Their teachers had told them about cancer at school and told it was deadly and incurable. Sasaki realized that she did not have much time left. Thinking of that her eyes filled with tears and she laid down back on the bed and started to sob.

Sasaki’s best friend was sitting beside her bed, trying to cheer her up.

“I had always dreamed of becoming an athlete in the future, but now my future only indicates darkness and murkiness.”

“Don’t worry, Sasaki. Till there is life there is hope. And I know something that may grant your wish of living longer.”

Sasaki looked at her and she nodded and quoted, “it’s a legend. Anyone that folds one thousand paper cranes is granted one wish and it will be fulfilled.”

From that day Sasaki’s brother collected all the papers he could find and bring them to Sasaki. She would sit on her bed and fold the papers into cranes and continuously murmur “I want to live long”

One day when she was folding paper cranes, she listened to the radio. The news person said that people were dying because of the pandemic that had swept through the country. Then, Sasaki that there was something more important for her to wish for rather than a long life, and from then onwards, she would murmur “I wish there are no wars but peace”.

She groaned in pain but did not give up hope when at last, after she had folded 644 paper cranes; she breathed her last and went to a peaceful sleep forever and never to wake up again.

The rest of the cranes were folded by her classmates and family while the government in knowing Sasaki’s dream and courage build a peace park in her memory with her statue.

Through this story we should know that we should give up on wars and work for a bright future otherwise we will soon all perish and destroy mother Earth and our future.

THE END