Children's Peace Monument Audio Guide

Children's Peace Monument: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Children's Peace Monument

   Welcome to the Children's Peace Monument, known in Japanese as Genbaku no Ko no Zo, which means the Atomic Bomb Children Statue. You are standing in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, among the many memorials that hold the story of the city's first and most terrible morning of the atomic age. This monument is dedicated to Sadako Sasaki and to the thousands of children who died because of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. It is also one of the few memorials here that was built by children themselves. That detail changes how you look at everything else around it. Over the next few minutes, we will meet the girl whose story inspired it, look closely at the bronze figures above you, and think about the paper cranes that arrive here in enormous numbers. Take a moment to notice the bright, colorful strings of folded cranes. Each one is a small message from someone who has never met you, and they are the reason this spot feels so alive.

2. 02

   Sadako Sasaki and the Children's Peace Monument

   Let's begin with the girl at the heart of this place. Sadako Sasaki was only two years old on the morning of August 6, 1945. She was at home with her family in Kusunoki-cho, in what is now Nishi Ward, about 1.6 kilometers from the center of the explosion, and they were eating breakfast. The blast threw her through the air, yet she had no outward injuries, and her family were all lightly hurt. She grew up into a capable, spirited girl. She attended Nobori-cho Elementary School, and in sixth grade she was the anchor runner in the relay at her school sports day. Then, 10 years after the bombing, she died of leukemia. Her classmates were shaken by her death. They called for a memorial for all the children who died in the atomic bombing. That is the spark behind the monument you are looking at: not an official decree, but a group of schoolchildren who refused to let a friend, and a whole generation of lost children, go unremembered.

3. 03

   Building the Children's Peace Monument

   What began as a classmates' appeal grew into a nationwide effort. Funds came from more than 3,200 schools across Japan and from donors in nine countries. The monument was completed on May 5, 1958, which is Children's Day in Japan, a date that suits it perfectly. Look up. The monument stands 9 meters high. At the very top is a bronze figure of a girl holding a folded paper crane aloft, a symbol of dreams for a peaceful future. On the sides stand two more figures, a boy and a girl. They represent the tens of thousands of children who, like Sadako, died because of the bombing, and also children all over the world who hope for peace. The inscription records its purpose. Children from Hiroshima's elementary, junior high and high schools came together, with the support of friends across the country, to comfort the spirits of the older brothers and sisters who died in the bombing, and to call out to the world for peace.

4. 04

   Paper Cranes at the Children's Peace Monument

   Now to the cranes. Students on school trips come here, and so do visitors from across Japan and around the world, to offer brightly colored strings of a thousand folded cranes. It is said that around 10 million cranes arrive every year, each one carrying a wish for peace. The story tied to Sadako is that she folded cranes while ill, wishing for peace. A popular version says she died after folding just under a thousand. But an exhibit at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum tells it differently: by the end of August 1955 she had reached her goal of 1,000 cranes, and she kept folding more. Two accounts survive, and both agree on what matters most, which is the wish behind every fold. Perhaps that is why the tradition has endured. A single sheet of paper is something any child can hold, and when millions of them gather in one place, they become a message that no one could miss.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off from Children's Peace Monument

   As you linger here, remember that the morning of August 6, 1945, at 8:15, touched a city of around 350,000 people. Among them were children. Thousands of mobilized students, 9,111 in all, were working on building demolition that morning, and many young lives were lost. Younger schoolchildren in grades three to six had been evacuated in groups, and some of them returned to find that their families and homes were gone. That is the wider story this monument holds, and it makes the small paper cranes all the more moving. Before you walk on, look once more at the girl at the top, her arms raised with a crane, and at the colors gathered below her. The park around you holds many more memorials, including the Cenotaph, where the Atomic Bomb Dome can be seen through the arch. Each one tells a different part of the story, and you may find that this one, built by children, stays with you longest.