Vienna: Some 100 people from Japan and
Austria attended a ceremony to unveil a stone peace monument
built using a flagstone that was exposed to radiation in the
1945 US atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
The ceremony took place here yesterday.
The monument is linked with a children`s peace
monument in Hiroshima`s Peace Memorial Park, which is
dedicated to Japanese girl Sadako Sasaki who was exposed to
atomic radiation at the age of 2 and died at age 12 due to a
radiation-caused illness.
Austrian children`s writer Karl Bruckner (1906-1982)
authored "Sadako will leben" (The Day of the Bomb) in 1961
with Sadako as its heroine. The book has been translated into
more than 20 languages.
Citizens groups in Hiroshima and Vienna decided to
build the stone monument in the Austrian capital`s Ottakring
district, Bruckner`s hometown, to mark the 140th anniversary
of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Japan and
Austria.
The Hiroshima municipal government contributed the
flagstone from Hiroshima`s old city hall. It measures 180
centimeters high and weighs about 800 kilograms.
It is inscribed with the words "world peace" in
Japanese and German.
Bureau Report
