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Wednesday, 8th June 2016
In General Japan News,
Obama's paper cranes to go on display at Hiroshima
Paper cranes that were created by US president Barack Obama are set to go on display at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
The US premier visited the site last month and brought with him four cranes that he had folded himself out of patterned origami paper.
Such cranes have been associated with Hiroshima since Sadako Sasaki, a bomb-affected person, constructed 1,000 before her death.
She died at the age of 12 from leukaemia, having been at home 1.1 miles away from ground zero when the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
It was Sasaki’s desire to fold the cranes, each representing an innocent victim of the bomb and a peaceful protest against nuclear warfare.
Obama is the first sitting US president to have visited Hiroshima and came equipped with the cranes.
Two of them he gifted to children who welcomed him to the museum and the other two he left beside the visitors’ book, reports the Japan Times.
The Hiroshima Municipal Government has announced plans for the cranes and the message he left in the book to be exhibited to the public until August 31st.
Obama’s note reads: “We have known the agony of war. Let us now find the courage, together, to spread peace, and pursue a world without nuclear weapons.”
As well as the cranes and the book, visitors to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum can see a statue of Sasaki at the adjacent park.
It was unveiled in 1958 after a fundraising campaign by her friends and features Sasaki holding a wire crane above her head.
Visitors to the park are encouraged to leave a folded paper crane at the statue as a symbol of solidarity for a world without nuclear war.
Related news stories:
Hiroshima increasingly popular with tourists (11th June 2014)
Hiroshima to reinforce A-bomb dome (27th January 2014)
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