Hiroshima: 70 Years On

We were delighted to invite our Year 5 pupils along with their parents to an interactive Gifted and Talented evening on 24th March.

As an added surprise we were joined by our friends from Johoku School in Hiroshima, Japan who took a very active role in the evening’s programme. On arrival everyone enjoyed some Japanese food; green tea, rice crackers, seaweed, wasabi nuts and peas. The two staff members from Johoku School, Matt Branch and Tony Osmond, were integral to the whole evening and helped in the delivery of putting the 70 year anniversary into context.

The audience watched a short clip of the dropping of the atom bomb and then the scene was set as to how Hiroshima has moved on 70 years later. They listened to the story of Sadako and how she attempted to make 1000 paper cranes to cure her illness. Everybody then made paper cranes with beautiful origami paper ably assisted by the Johoku students. Everybody was very engrossed and the cranes looked stunning.

The students were asked to consider what we mean by peace and Matt explained the thinking behind the new symbol of peace for Hiroshima which was displayed in the screen. The students then wrote their own personal peace declaration on a Japanese styled scroll. Some students shared their thoughts with the audience.

As a finale the boys from Johoku performed the traditional folk dance of a sea shanty in traditional costume. It was spectacular. The Year 5 students then joined in!

The paper cranes and peace statements will travel back to Hiroshima with our visitors. What a wonderful thought to know that our work will be part of the 70th anniversary celebrations.
Some comments from the audience;

‘Made us think about more than just war. Excellent pupils from Hiroshima!’
‘Thank you very much, we liked the Japanese food. Thanks to the boys from Japan.’
‘It has been a great opportunity to learn something about a different culture, presented in a very interesting, interactive way. ‘
‘Thanks for a brilliant evening.’
‘It was wonderful to be able to learn so much about a different part of the world and meet the boys from Johoku and it will be interesting to see how this captures my daughter’s imagination in the coming weeks and months. Thank you!’

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