Hiroshima and the cranes of hope
Rhonda Walker
The Tragedy of Hiroshima
On August 6, 1945, a B-29 plane dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan's seventh largest city. In minutes, the city was destroyed.
Flash burns caused most of the casualties. Others were burned when their homes burst into flame. Trees were uprooted. The bomb took the lives of 42,000 persons and injured 40,000 more.
In the early stages of the explosion, temperatures of tens of millions of degrees were produced. The light emitted is roughly ten times the brightness of the sun. The explosion gave off various types of radiations. These radiative particles gave the atomic bomb its greatest deadliness. They may last years or even centuries in dangerous amounts. Gamma radiation caused thousands of cases of radiation sickness in Japan.
Sadako Sasaki
While she was in the hospital, she was told an old legend. It said that whoever folds one thousand cranes would be granted a wish. Sadako folded well over 1 000 before she died at age 12, hoping to get better and world peace.
Her classmates got together and built a monument for her and all the other childeren killed because of the bombs. It is a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane, featured in Hiroshima Peace Park.
1 000 Cranes of Hope
1000 Cranes of Hope collects wishes of people who stand together in the fight against cancer. To demonstrate this commitment, Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company will make a donation for every wish made on the site to charitable organizations.