The film is about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and, in my opinion, is a model for teaching children about war and its consequences.
Hiroshima has a Peace Park, a memorial complex dedicated to the bombing, which is part of the compulsory school curriculum in Japan. There comes the heroine - a 12-year-old girl Tomoko. After wandering through the halls of the museum and watching the horrors of those days, she sits on a bench next to a monument depicting a girl holding a crane high above her head. Tomoko decides to make a paper crane and the girl on the monument miraculously comes to life. The girl is Sadako Sasaki, the one who fell ill with leukemia and desperately wanted to recover. she tells Tomoko her story.
Since the cartoon is childish, the horrors of the bombing are shown very smoothly, but the story does not lose its tragedy.
In my opinion, one of the main advantages of the cartoon is that the narrative is conducted on behalf of the child. She speaks in simple words. She tells how she was suddenly thrown away by an explosive wave, how she was looking for her grandmother, how she fell ill many years later and could not run with her classmates, how she was confined to bed and dreamed of recovering with all her heart. It is very easy to imagine and very difficult not to cry.
Of course, this is only one fate, crippled and destroyed by the atomic bomb. This is all and nothing at the same time.
I really want such cartoons to be as many as possible - bright, kind with the hope of peace in the world.
9 out of 10