October 30, 2006 - page 2

was after the bomb. Yet, on this beautiful afternoon slivers of bright blue sky were visible through holes in the brick, and a soft breeze carried the sounds of a live band across the river over to us. It all seemed rather incongruous with the scene of death and destruction that this monument represents.

This sense pervades the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Serene shaded walkways offer a reprieve from the city’s hustle and bustle, and the air rings with laughter and chatter in many different languages. There are memorials

everywhere. At the Children’s Peace Monument there is a statue of Sadako Sasaki, a girl who tried to ward off her death from radiation-induced leukemia by folding 1000 paper cranes. In glass cases surrounding the statue are literally millions of multi-colored paper cranes folded all over the
world, a colorful and fanciful tribute to all the child victims of the atomic bomb. It’s vibrant and beautiful, and somehow
quite touching. In another section of the park a flame burns brightly, never to be extinguished until the world’s nuclear