Photo/Illutration Yuji Sasaki, the third from left, with high school students from Hiroshima Prefectural Akifuchu High School. Behind the group is the Children’s Peace Monument that is modeled after his aunt, Sadako Sasaki. (Provided by Yuji Sasaki)

Yuji Sasaki is determined to uphold his war-tested belief in peace that began with his Aunt Sadako. 

The 54-year-old musician lives in Tokyo and plans to erect a statue and install a symbolic fire at a monument in the Pearl Harbor National Memorial in Hawaii. 

Dec. 7 marks 83 years since the Imperial Japanese forces launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, triggering the United States' declaration of war against Japan, Germany and other axis powers. 

The attack signifies the start of the Pacific War and further intensification of World War II. 

Sadako is the reason Sasaki is familiar with both sides of the conflict. His aunt was exposed to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and, as a result, passed away from leukemia a decade later at the age of 12 in 1955.

She became the model for the Children’s Peace Monument that stands in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. During her time in the hospital, Sadako folded more than 1,000 paper cranes from her bed, hoping to live.

Sasaki has conveyed his aunt’s thoughts and feelings through music and lectures. He also continues to donate Sadako's origami cranes to entities in Japan and abroad.

In 2013, he presented a crane to the USS Arizona Memorial, which is part of the larger Pearl Harbor National Memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii.

However, when he learned that some Americans caught up in the Pearl Harbor attack held grudges against Japan until they died, he felt the depths of their hatred.

After wondering about what he could do, he came up with the idea of sharing a historic emblem with the Pearl Harbor National Memorial.

Specifically, the “Flame of Peace” in the Hoshinomura district of Yame, Fukuoka Prefecture, that has burned since the atomic bombing.

Immediately after World War II ended, a man who lost an uncle in the bombing brought fire from the ruins of Hiroshima back to his hometown of Yame in Fukuoka Prefecture.

At first, the man saw it as a “flame of resentment.” However, he later changed his mind, instead believing that “peace will never come through retaliation,” and the fire has since been passed down as a symbol of peace.

Sasaki began the project in 2021 and finalized the monument's design with high school students from Hiroshima and the director of the USS Arizona Memorial last year. A stylized statue of children holding a large origami crane will accompany a portion of the flame. 

“People confront each other because of the differences in religion, culture and way of thinking, and end up in starting a war,” Sasaki said. “I want to keep sending a message to emphasize the importance of joining hands together to overcome grudges” 

The project is scheduled for completion by the end of next year, the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. 

Even with peace projects such as these, conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East and other regions persist.

It is amid these international crises that the Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded to the Japan Confederation of A- and H-bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) at a ceremony on Dec. 10.

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Pearl Harbor Attack, Dec. 8 (Dec. 7 local date), 1941

An Imperial Japanese Navy task force led by six aircraft carriers launched a surprise attack on the port and airfield located at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Approximately 2,400 Americans were killed in the attack. The Imperial Japanese Army also landed on the Malay Peninsula in British territory shortly before the attack that became the starting point of the Pacific War.

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