Kiyo Okura

Who was Kiyo Okura?

While Sadako was in the hospital, she shared a room with a girl two years her senior named Kiyo Okura. Okura was asked about her time with Sadako as the young victim became known as a peace symbol, but for most of her life she rarely volunteered information.

However, in 2005, 60 years after the bomb fell, Okura decided to begin writing about Sadako. With encouragement from an interested editor, she wrote an entire short book's worth about the Sadako she came to know and care for during the approximately three months they spent together. The book was released that same year, and in 2008 Okura passed away.