Deputy Principal

Time to Reflect

On our journey through Japan, we stopped at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. As we entered the site, I reminded the students of how the history they had learnt at school had been taught from an Australian perspective, and that this would be a chance for them to learn about parts of WWII from a Japanese perspective.

It is not my place to judge the rights and wrongs of conflicts that occurred in WWII. However on 6 August 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and three days later they dropped another one in Nagasaki, with the Japanese surrendering to the allies a few days later. Walking through the memorial was a very somber experience. As a father and a teacher, you could not help but think that the people of Hiroshima woke up one morning and were going about their normal routines. They went to work; they went to school. With no real warning the bomb was dropped. Over a hundred thousand people were killed. The majority of those killed were civilians including women and children. Japanese rescuers rushed to the site to help without considering their own welfare as they went into a site filled with radiation. As rain fell and people rushed to stand in the rain as they were burnt, the rain was filled with toxic acid which caused further death of innocent people.

One story that really was hard to hear about was that of Sadako Sasaki. She was just two years old when the bomb was dropped. Her house was 1.6km from the bomb site and as the bomb exploded, she was blown out of the window of the family home. Her mother found her outside. Miraculously, she appeared unharmed. As her family fled Hiroshima while the city burned, they were caught in the black rain. Later in 1954, she started to get sick and in 1955 she was diagnosed with leukemia. This was as a direct result of the bomb that was dropped 10 years earlier. While she was sick in hospital, she started folding paper cranes. Stories were told that if you folded one thousand paper cranes that a wish would be granted. Sadako spent her last few months folding paper cranes and in the memorial park there is a statue of Sadako holding a paper crane. Thousands of schools throughout Japan have since contributed to the monument as a symbol of hope and peace. 

I told the boys on tour that through the grace of God, we are growing up in a country relatively untouched by war since we were born. We must remember that around the world innocent civilians are dying on a daily basis due to wars that they want no part of. We remember all of those who are suffering currently in their countries through conflict. 

We need to remember the words that are placed at the foot of the monument to Sadako Sasaki. It reads: 

“This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world."

Adrian Byrne

Deputy Principal