| SYNOPSIS:
A Japanese-American teen joins five sojourners of Japanese heritage as they attend the ceremonies commemorating the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. In telling their unique but related stories, they find common threads in their lives and together they learn to make peace with their pasts as the teenager learns to appreciate the Japanese half of her own heritage. “In a journey of a thousand cranes,
if we make a link, then we start to think
that warfare must cease.
With a journey of a thousand cranes,
we go place-to-place, we meet face-to-face,
and try to find peace. A world of difference, a world apart.
But there’s no difference
when meeting heart-to-heart. It’s a journey of a thousand cranes,
we met one-to-one, our searching is done,
and peace is all that remains
from a journey of a thousand cranes…” THE CAST:
SADIE (SADAKO) ISHIKAWA: American teen of Japanese/Caucasian ancestry
SEIJI ISHIKAWA*: Sadie’s grandfather; Japanese soldier during WWII
YURIKO: a “hibakisha” from Hiroshima
KEIKO*: a resident of Tokyo who was born and spent her early childhood in occupied China
TOSHIRO: the son of a Japanese-American man imprisoned in Japan while visiting at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor
YOSHIKO: Daughter of Japanese American soldier (killed in action in Europe) and American (Caucasian) mother; spent early childhood in an internment camp.
*denotes a character who speaks with a Japanese accent PRODUCTION NOTES:
Ensemble show; all roles are leads or featured performers and double as chorus. The show incorporates some Japanese cultural aspects, such as Japanese interpretive dance, origami, and haiku. Appropriate to be performed by professional, collegiate, or talented amateur or high school performers. SADAKO AND THE THOUSAND CRANES:
The show references the story of Sadako and the thousand cranes:
A young Japanese girl named Sadako suffered from radiation sickness following the atomic bombings in Japan. She was told she might be granted her wish for healing by folding a thousand paper cranes. Sadako began folding. One account says that from her deathbed, she held up one crane and said in a quiet voice, “I will write ‘peace’ on your wings and you will fly all over the world.” Each year thousands of people fold tens of thousands of paper cranes in Sadako’s memory, and to commemorate the many other lost lives. They pile the cranes at the foot of the statue of Sadako, erected in Hiroshima to memorialize all the young victims of the a-bomb. Peace on Your Wings words and music ©2002 Jill Marshall-Work “We will write peace on your wings and you will fly
’til your messages of hope are written on our common sky.
We will write peace on your wings and you will fly. We will write hope on our feet and we will run
to the corners of the earth until our race for peace is won.
We will write peace on our feet and we will run. We will write love on our hands and we will dare
to extend a hand in peace and find new friendships evÕrywhere.
We will write love on our hands, and we will dare. We will write joy in our hearts, so all will see
one-to-one weÕll build a peace until weÕre one community.
We will write joy in our hearts, so all will see.” Jill Marshall-Work’s personal
Journey of a Thousand Cranes Ms. Marshall-Work has participated as one of three members of the 2002 Peace Ambassador Exchange (PAX) team to Japan. The PAX program is sponsored by the World Friendship Center in Hiroshima, Japan, and promotes the goals of the WFC by bringing together peace-seeking individuals from Japan and the U.S. as an avenue for promoting peace one friendship at a time. The PAX team attends Peace Day ceremonies at Hiroshima and Nagasaki; has speaking engagements at school, civic, and other groups; and has the opportunity for cultural exchange and dialogue on peace issues with individuals in Japan. Ms. Marshall-Work’s goal as part of the team was to “promote cross-cultural understanding through the performing arts.” Ms. Marshall-Work, with help from friends and family, folded one thousand paper cranes, and took them with her to Hiroshima to by place by Sadako’s statue in Peace Park on Peace Day, August 6, 2002.
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