Local Musical Peace on Your Wings Travels to Hiroshima for the 80th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombings
The ‘Ohana Arts production tells the story of Sadako Sasaki, known for folding 1,000 paper cranes to wish for her recovery from radiation-based leukemia.
Photo: Courtesy of ‘Ohana Arts
With an invite from the mayor of Hiroshima, local performers of the Peace on Your Wings musical will take part in Japan’s Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony in August, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
The show, a production of local performing arts organization ‘Ohana Arts, tells the story of Sadako Sasaki, who folded 1,000 paper cranes in hopes of getting better after radiation from the Hiroshima blast gave her leukemia. She died at age 12 in 1955. Later, Honolulu became the first city to establish a sister-city relationship with Hiroshima, in 1959, the year after Sadako’s monument was unveiled at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
‘Ohana Arts was founded by Jenny Taira; her sister Cari Taira; and Jenny’s wife, Laurie Rubin. Their theater program at Hongwanji Mission School piqued the interest of the bishop of the Hongwanji Mission of Hawai‘i, who asked the organization to create a touring show for temples on the Neighbor Islands.
Photo: Courtesy of ‘Ohana Arts
Jenny Taira wanted to focus the show on Sadako and her friends, who raised money for the monument despite being children themselves. “Musicals that are adapted or written for children are historically watered down,” Rubin says, and people “try to shelter children from things that are difficult. But the thing is, kids go through difficult things just as adults do. … So we wanted to write a musical that really speaks to the kids’ point of view.”
Taira, a clarinetist and pianist, and Rubin, an opera singer, began writing the musical, which debuted in 2014 with a cast of 38 kids. Since then, they “spent 10 years working on it, revising it, making it more true to Sadako’s actual story,” Rubin says, including incorporating details from The Complete Story of Sadako Sasaki, published in 2018 by Masahiro Sasaki, Sadako’s brother. “We added a lot more of the historical elements, but kept the funny and the uplifting stuff because we also created a fictional story around her friends.”
Photo: Courtesy of ‘Ohana Arts
The production so far has toured 10 cities, with bombing survivors among the attendees. “One of the things we wanted to do in telling the story is allow Asian American kids to be involved in the show, and it made a huge impact because a lot of our students in San Jose and San Francisco, their grandparents were interned,” Rubin says. “And even though this is not really the Japanese American story in the same way that Allegiance was, they really felt like somebody was telling the story of their history.”
Rubin says Peace on Your Wings was recently licensed so other theater groups could perform it. “I think for the Asian communities that are out there—gosh, especially now—I think it’s just going to pack a punch for all of those people who feel that they don’t have a voice.”
Peace on Your Wings will be performed at UH’s Kennedy Theatre July 12 and 13 before heading to Japan. Fun fact: An original cast member, just 6 at the time, will be playing another character, 10 years later. Academy Award-winning filmmaker Freida Lee Mock will accompany the production, so expect a documentary in the future.
peaceonyourwings.com, @peaceonyourwings
Katrina Valcourt is the executive editor of HONOLULU Magazine.
