Murals around DC mark anniversary of nuclear bombings in Japan

The mural follows the story of a girl named Sadako Sasaki. She was 2 years old in 1945, living in Hiroshima with her family when the nuclear weapon was detonated. She survived the bombing, but 10 years later, she got leukemia and died while in grade school.

One of the "wild" murals put up around D.C. (Courtesy Nuclear Threat Initiative) — Sasaki attempted to fold 1,000 paper cranes while she was getting sick, following a Japanese tradition that if you could fold 1,000 paper cranes, your wish could come true.

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Murals of a manga-style comic strip popped up around the District over the weekend, with a heartfelt message to bring awareness to nuclear disarmament.

The murals are part of the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s #CranesForOurFuture campaign that takes place each August, to remember the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan on Aug. 6 and 9 in 1945.

Mimi Hall, vice president of communications at NTI, told WTOP that those anniversaries are incredibly important to remember.

“We’ve been very, very lucky that it’s been 78 years, and we have not seen an another nuclear detonation,” Hall said. “But our concern is that we’re on very thin ice right now that we were seeing threats from Russia, obviously, with respect to the war in Ukraine, we have nine countries with nuclear weapons, 13,000 nuclear weapons around the world.”

The D.C.-based global security nonprofit worked with the Hiroshima Organization for Global Peace and the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Prefectures to commission a comic strip mural that “is centered around the history and the future of nuclear weapons.”

“The mural goes through the story of a girl named Sadako Sasaki, and she’s kind of at the center of our Cranes for Our Future campaign,” Hall explains. “She was 2 years old in 1945, living in Hiroshima with her family when the nuclear weapon was detonated over Hiroshima. She actually survived the bombing, which was amazing. But 10 years later, she got leukemia and died in grade school.”

Sasaki attempted to fold 1,000 paper cranes while she was getting sick, following a Japanese tradition that if you could fold 1,000 paper cranes, your wish could come true.

Nuclear Threat Initiative’s #CranesForOurFuture campaign takes place each August, to remember the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan on Aug. 6 and 9 in 1945. (Courtesy Nuclear Threat Initiative)

“Obviously, she died from the long-term effects of radiation poisoning. But schoolchildren around the world heard her story, and she’s memorialized in the Hiroshima Peace Park, and it’s become kind of a famous story in Japan,” Hall said.

The artwork created by Gigi Murakami, a Brooklyn-based artist, follows Sasaki’s story and gives people the choice to speak out against nuclear war or live in a world “full of death and destruction.”

The mural will be posted in more than 20 locations around the District and New York City, which Hall hopes will “raise awareness” around the issue of nuclear war and disarmament.

“For those of us who live in D.C., we know, there are many, many ways to try to bring awareness to issues — there’s lobbying Congress, there are protests … there are many ways to go,” Hall said. “One way is through art.”

Hall said that, for many years, nuclear weapons haven’t been getting the kind of public attention that leads to global leaders taking action.

“So that’s part of the purpose of Cranes for Our Future,” Hall said. “You know, one way people can do it over this weekend and through early next week … is go on social media and post using #CranesForOurFuture, fold the paper crane, hold the paper crane, use one of the digital pieces of art on our website and post a message about why a world without nuclear weapons is important to you.”

The approximate locations of the murals are listed below. Hall noted that these pasted murals are part of “guerrilla marketing,” so they may not be in the precise locations and there is no way of knowing how long the murals will stay up.

Anticipated Locations: