EPE: Special Thanks to Clifton Truman Daniel

EPE Live: Clifton Truman Daniel has a very unique perspective that can surely be an asset in the development of the ‘Sadako and the Magic of Paper Cranes’ Project.  

Growing up, Clifton Truman Daniel never talked to his grandfather, Harry S. Truman, about his role in the war or the atomic bombings. “Our family met like any other family: on long weekends and holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving. And you were always careful about showing an interest in history or Grandpa would be sure to give you a lengthy history lesson,” says Daniel of his grandfather.

The Truman Presidential Library is filled with history lessons. One such lesson revolves around the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima and three days later, on August 9th, another atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. The aftermath of the bombings left nearly a quarter of a million people dead. Survivors of the bombings were called hibakusha; literally translated as “explosion-affected people.”

When Daniel’s son Wesley was 10, his social studies teacher, Rosemary Barilla, did a series of lessons centered on the children’s Book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. “I came home one night to find Wesley wearing a kimono with sushi and green tea laid out on the coffee table behind him,” recalls Daniel. “The book had appealed to him because there was no happy ending. It was realistic. ”The book tells the true story of two-year-old Sadako Sasaki, who survived the bombing of Hiroshima.