And to the Ends of the Earth

Being in Hiroshima it was impossible to ignore the history. At first walking through the Peace Memorial Museum was just a disconnected reflection of facts. It was another time and a war I had no part in. It was faceless. Then came shock, sorrow, and the sober reality of the destruction and devastation. I struggled with guilt, frustration, anger, hopelessness, and despair. The pain of others was no longer faceless.

Two things made me involved a girl named Sadako and art. My fifth grade class did a unit on Japan. As a class we learned to fold paper cranes and sent them to Hiroshima to be placed around a Children’s memorial. We read the story of a girl named Sadako, who developed leukemia at age 12 as a result of the radiation left from the A-bomb. It is believed that if a person folds a thousand paper cranes her wish will come true. In hopes of being healed she folded paper cranes desperate to live. She reached her goal and still did not recover. She continued folding cranes each one smaller then the last till a few days before her death. After her death the children’s monument was built and the statue surrounded by paper cranes. A section of the museum is a tribute to Sadako’s life, sharing her story, testimony of family and classmates, pictures, personal belongingss and some of the tiny cranes she folded. Because of a class project Sadako’s story because real to me.

Art moves me. In my darkest moments I paint, it is healing. To work through the grief many of the survivors painted their experiences. A few of their works are on display with the artist explanation. The images were…I’m sorry there are no words. Just recalling there painting has a lump forming in my throat and wet eyes. I have only experienced the same depth of emotions one other time, two years ago when I visited the genocide museum in Rwanda. It’s a sense of loss, despair and hopelessness. To paint my emotion is to have a black canvas. Wars and death do not end. We seem to only find new ways to destroy each other. Our only hope in the darkness is peace.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called sons of God.
Matthew 5:9