Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor's Story
Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor’s Story
By Caren StelsonReviewed by: Yara Marquez, Birute Mikuleviciute, Sarai Morales, Amy Nguyen, Khanh Nguyen 
Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor’s Story
Caren Stelson grew up on the East Coast, also spending some of her early life in the Midwest. In her childhood Stelson enjoyed her time daydreaming as she hiked up mountains and camped outdoors. As a child her love of reading biographies and historical fiction led her to become a History major in college. Stelson also obtained her Master’s degree in Education and Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline College in 2009. In her life Stelson has had careers as a reading specialist, a classroom teacher, a writer and editor for classroom curriculum materials, an educational software designer, a writer-in-residence, and an author. All of these pursuits required her to have imagination, creativity, and respect for the writing process. In the sixth grade Stelson won a writing college with a story about traveling west on the Oregon trail. Stelson has never traveled the Oregon trail, but as someone who enjoys traveling many of Stelson’s stories include people from the place she has traveled to. Stelson’s father died of Alzheimer’s in 1998 never telling her much about his WWII experience. After her father’s service where he was awarded with full military honors, Stelson began her research on her father’s time in the military which led Stelson to collect stories about WWII. To write this story, Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor’s Story, Stelson traveled to Nagasaki five times to interview Sachiko and research her story. Stelson is an active member in the Saint Paul-Nagasaki Sister City Committee and World Citizen which is a nonprofit organization that empowers communities to educate for a just and peaceful world. With stories in mind, Stelson has learned that no matter the size, everyone has the power to make a difference with their own.
Book Review
Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor’s Story by Caren Stelson is a story of recalling the trauma to bring forward protection and to retell the story of a survivor’s journey to find hope, courage, love and peace. Throughout the book is the 50-year living time of Sachiko Yasui – the atomic bomb survivor as ever since as a child at the age of six, her country was at war and had been partly destroyed by atomic bombs. At the beginning it was a road of trauma with Yasui’s childhood, her later loss and then the struggle to share her story with other people, Stelson let the readers see the events, the incidents, all of what had happened through the eyes of Yasui, it was never appeared in a detailed vision, but enough to shadow the audience with the despair and terror during that crisis trauma. It had never been easy, when Yasui gradually lost her family members to the radiation from the atomic bomb as time went by, the image was represented as life kept losing its light and eventually became the silent oblivion of sorrow. And because Yasui understood that pain of losing everything she had cherished, she decided to preserve her courage, regained her voice from the thyroid cancer and spoke up: “What happened to me must never happen to you”.
The themes emphasized through Sachiko’s storytelling are that of hope, perseverance, education and love. Some of her biggest inspirations aside from her father were Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and Hellen Keller—all whom were the epitome of peace, knowledge and tolerance. One of the most important points that Sachiko’s story enlightens the reader about is the importance of education. What we learn about in U.S. History is that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor killing thousands of US troops thus, causing the decision to drop Little Boy (in Hiroshima Aug.6th ) and Fat Man (in Nagasaki Aug.9th) to urge Japan to surrender. What they do not go into detail about is the lives of the millions of innocent Japanese people that were taken and forever altered because of the bombs. Her story allows us to see the effects of war first-hand: the injuries, the panic, the terror, the short term and long term effects. The information the US government aimed to censor—shortly after the taking of Japan by the US military— and keep away from not only Japanese people, but also the American people was finally confirmed. Her testimony and her person serve as a direct link between our past and our future as members of the human race. The goal she aims to reach by telling her and her family’s story is coming as close as we can to “world peace”. To understand that war and hating each other solves nothing but instead intensifies disagreements between us. In order to advance as a society and as a group we must learn to love each other. Taking from her role models, Sachiko pushes for tolerance and discourages any future usage of nuclear weapons. We are to take the lessons learned from our past mistakes and use them in order to become better versions of ourselves for the future.
Relevant Materials
Instructional Activity
Grade Level: 11-12
Introduction to the Lesson: It is important for society to be introduced to narratives that represent all minorities, cultures, races, and ethnicities while they gain a deeper understanding of a multicultural world and connect to diverse stories. Representation can help society see a world that is outside their own, a world that can help encourage respect, mutual understanding, and compassion from various perspectives. Over the course of two days, we will be focusing on the Japanese perspective as we focus on Sachiko Yasui’s story, a woman who survived the Nagasaki bombing at the age of six. While we explore Sachiko: a Nagasaki Bomb Survivor’s Story by Caren Stelson, we hope that our students consider the cultural representation in the book and reflect on the representation that they see in the world. We want our students to pay particular attention to Sachiko and her age in this book while asking themselves what it is like for a kid to grow up in a different part of the world and go through the struggles that she did. Are there any commonalities that readers can relate to? What was particularly impactful, eye-opening, or thought-provoking?
Common Core Standards:
1. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
2. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.3: Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.
3. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.6: Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.
4. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WS.11-12.2B: Develop the topic thoroughly by selecting the most significant and relevant facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic.
5. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WS.11-12.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Instructional Plan:
Day One:
Students will be introduced to the novel and asked a few questions: “What do you know about the atomic bomb or the relationship between the United States and Japan during World War II? What do you think were some of the effects and wartime conditions of the nuclear bomb for those living in Japan?” This will initiate the discussion of prior background information, as well as help assess their current knowledge of a difficult topic. They will be asked to pay close attention to the different Japanese and American perspectives and how it influenced the way society viewed each other. The teacher will also guide them to certain pages of the book to highlight the importance of the level of detail in the historical context. The teacher will provide students with an introductory brief overview PowerPoint of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Students will get insight into what was happening during the war and in the U.S. at the time. Then, the students will be split up into groups where they will focus on one of three important articles correlated to the effects of the atomic bomb and annotate each article in their selected groups. The teacher will also hand out KQR charts to each group, show the class how to effectively use a “Knowledge/Questions/ Response” chart, and expect them to do the same once they have finished assessing their articles. We will finish the class session by going over them and collectively sharing our ideas, thoughts, and questions. Students will also be expected to read the whole book for the next class session as it is a narrative that is well-known for its captivating simplicity. They will then be reminded to take notes and annotate their book as they read, marking important passages, and paying attention to the information of many aspects of the atomic bomb and the war leading up to, and after. Their homework will be to read the novel and fill out the Double-Entry Journal strategy to help them with their reading. The Double-Entry Journal strategy will already be a strategy they are familiar with and know how to use.
Day Two:
As the students walk in, a list of five questions will be written on the board relating to the novel:
1. What were the significant events in Sachiko’s life? How were Sachiko's experiences as a hibakusha? What were some of the problems she faced not being able to talk about the bombing of Nagasaki, what type of illnesses did she endure?
2. What was the author’s tone and what was your mood while you were reading?
3. How is this story relevant to young people?
4. What effect did the extensive research that Stelson did prior to writing have on the overall novel? How did the photographs, glossary of Japanese words, chapter notes, and bibliography help you in your reading?
5. What questions do you still have?
Students will then proceed to do a quick write and answer the following questions to assess their knowledge, as well as ask any questions they may still have. They will be expected to turn their quick-writes in as their exit ticket for the day. The teacher will proceed to ask the students to take out their Double-Entry Journals from their reading and use it for an engaging classroom discussion. We will go over the novel as a class and cover a wide array of topics which will include the following:
- What was the aftermath of the atomic bomb?
- How difficult was life for the Yasui's during the war?
- What were the struggles for Aki, Ichiro, and Sachiko's uncle after they had survived?
- What effects did the bullying and trauma have on Sachiko, and where did she find her inspiration to endure? How did her father help her find peace, and even more so, her voice?
- In what ways did Sachiko's family live in the "mushroom cloud's shadow"?
- How does this novel offer an important perspective?
- What are some key points that make this a powerful and compelling narrative?
- What was Sachiko Yasui's overall message?
Students will be expected to share specific passages from the book to support their answers to these questions to the class. They will use their Double-Entry Journals to relate back to the text for evidence, as well as use their own reasoning skills to further analyze the text, ask questions, and share their ideas with the class. Once the discussion has ended, the teacher will ask them to take out their quick write from earlier and ask them one final question: Why is Sachiko’s story a necessary one? They will turn this paper in before they leave the classroom.
Worksheets:
- Article 1: https://time.com/after-the-bomb/
- Article 2: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/how-atomic-bomb-survivors-have-transformed-our-understanding-radiation-s-impacts
- Article 3: https://sciencing.com/environmental-effects-atomic-bomb-8203814.html
- Worksheet A: KQR Chart
- Worksheet B: Double-Entry Journal
