As you all have seen the wonderful performance, you would have known the story of Sadako and the thousand cranes. This is a true story.
Sadako Sasaki was a Japanese girl living in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan (August 6, 1945). In 1955, at age 11, Sadako was diagnosed with leukemia, a type of cancer caused by the atomic bomb. [Photo from wikipedia.com]
While in the hospital, Sadako started to fold paper cranes. In Japan, there is a belief that if you folded 1000 paper cranes, then your wish would come true. Sadako spend 14 months in the hospital, folding paper cranes with whatever paper she could get. Her wish was that she would get well again. Sadako also wished for an end to all suffering and to attain peace and healing to the victims of the world.
Sadako died on October 25, 1955, she was 12 years old and had folded over 1300 paper cranes. Sadako’s friends and classmates raised money to build a memorial in honor of Sadako and other atomic bomb victims. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial was completed in 1958 and has a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane. At the base is a plaque that says:
This is our cry.
This is our prayer.
Peace in the world.
(story obtained from http://www.origami-resource-center.com/sadako.html)
(pic obtained from http://www.sadakosasakifacts.com/)
(pic obtained from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadako_Sasaki)
Lessons learnt:
The story of Sadako and the thousand paper cranes reminds us the importance of world peace. We must never take peace for granted. Sadako, with all her hopes and dreams of becoming an Olympic Gold medallist sprinter, could not achieve her dream because of the repercussions of the Atomic Bomb. All of us have hopes and dreams. Our parents have hopes and dreams of us too. However, if we are not living in a peaceful and prosperous Singapore, we will find it very difficult to achieve these hopes and dreams.
By forging friendships with people regardless of race, language or religion, we find ourselves making more friends and widening our social circle. This is the same for countries. Singapore makes friends with other countries. We do not want a war to happen. War not only causes tremendous destruction to life and property, sometimes it also affects future generations, like the case of Sadako Sasaki.
What are your hopes and dreams? Let us ensure that we do our part to defend Singapore, to allow us to fulfil such hopes and dreams.
