Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine A 60-year-old suitcase has changed
Fumiko Ishioka's life in Japan forever.
The well-worn brown bag is no ordinary piece of luggage -- it
survived the German Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, while its
owner, 13-year-old Hana Brady, did not -- and it is now the subject
of a worldwide bestseller titled "Hana's Suitcase."
The book, written by a Canadian named Karen Levine, has been translated
into over 20 languages. For Ishioka, who started the Tokyo Holocaust
Education Resource Center in 1998, Hana's suitcase has become a
bridge between a beautiful little Czech girl who died in a Nazi
gas chamber in October 1944 and the children of the world.
Through learning about the Holocaust, Ishioka hopes children worldwide
will embrace the path of peace. It's not an easy mission for the
33-year-old Ishioka. There is very little funding to help her center,
so she works out of the office of the firm that published her Japanese
translation of the book -- a Canadian bestseller in children's literature.
Ishioka spends most of her time touring schools in Japan and overseas
with the suitcase.
"Other than 'The Diary of Anne Frank,' which is very popular
in Japan, what happened to the Jews in Europe during the Holocaust
is not that well known in the Land of the Rising Sun. There is only
a small mention of it in Japanese history books," said Ishioka.
"Although the Holocaust happened a long time ago and is not
related directly to Japan's history, the process of thinking about
why such a thing happened is very important for children living
today in Japan. It gives them a chance to think about why human
beings act in such a way."
Born in Tokyo, Ishioka graduated from Temple University in the
USA and went off to study at the University of Leeds in the UK.
Returning to Japan in 1997, she joined an NGO to create a Holocaust
exhibition center. She requested an artifact that she could use
for peace education in Japan and to her delight, the Auschwitz Museum
in Poland agreed to lend her Hana's suitcase.
To her further delight, Ishioka learned that Hana's older brother
George was alive and well in Canada. He visited Japan in March 2001
and saw his sister's suitcase for the first time in 57 years. Since
then, Ishioka has been to Canada three times and the U.S., visiting
schools, synagogues and churches with Karen Levine (the Canadian
author of "Hana's Suitcase").  |
