LOS ANGELES (Kyodo) — A peace organization recently placed a doll holding a “Remember Hiroshima” sign in Disneyland in Anaheim, California, resulting in a video of the doll going viral.
The doll, covered in ash and dressed in a “yukata” casual summer kimono, was placed inside the It’s a Small World ride, where figurines modeled after children from around the world are displayed, on Aug. 3, according to local media. The organization did so without permission, and the doll was subsequently removed.
Ben Cohen, the head of the group Up In Arms and also a co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, posted a video clip on social media, saying Hiroshima was “a city full of children” when the U.S. military dropped an atomic bomb on it during World War II, and the “playgrounds turned into graveyards.”
Noting that the same thing is happening in Gaza as a result of attacks by Israel, Cohen said, “On the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima, we need to remember what war does to kids.”
Among supportive comments on the post, one said, “It’s important to know history,” and another called it “an opportunity to talk to children about what happened.”
Other comments mentioned the Pearl Harbor attack by Japan or said it was inappropriate to place the doll in a facility visited by children.
==Kyodo
