Fumiko Ishioka speaking schedule

15 years since the arrival of Hana's suitcase next year!

We are aiming at visiting the 1000th school. 
(We are counting 980 now.)

 

Please see here for application.

2015
January
10 Heiwanomori Elementary School (Tokyo)
14 Hasse Junior High School (Kanagawa)
15 Kamitome Elementary School (Saitama)
17 Koka Gakuen Junior High School (Tokyo)
21 Kochi Gakugei Junior High School (Kochi)
27 International Holocaust Remembrance Day at UN University (Tokyo)
30 Ochi Junior High School (Kochi)

February
2  Aikou Elementary School (Kanagawa)
4  Sacred Heart Girls School (Tokyo)
9  Denen-Chofu Futaba Elementary School (Tokyo)
13 British School in Tokyo (Tokyo)
18 Meiji Gakuin High School (Tokyo)
20 Koen Girls School (Tokyo)
25 Asahi Elementary School (Tokyo)
27 Association of Private Junior & Junior High Schools in Tokyo

March
3 Osakaue Junior High School (Tokyo)
4 Kaishin Daisan Junior High School (Tokyo)
5 Hoshino Gakuen (Saitama)
11 Shiki city (Saitama)
12 Miyakami Junior High School (Tokyo)
13 Tsurukawa Daini Junior High School (Kanagawa)
18 Kirigaoka Junior High School

April
12 Jewish Community Center (Tokyo)

May
27 American School International Japan (Tokyo)

June
6   Suginami Central Public Library (Tokyo)
13 Koganei Daini Junior High School (Tokyo)
21 Kasukabe city (Saitama)
23 Yamazaki Gakuen Junior High School (Tokyo)
26 Morinosato Elementary School (Kanagawa)
27 Moroyama town (Saitama)
29 Kemei Gakuen Elementary School (Tokyo)

July
4 Kami city (Kochi)
6 Tottori-nishi High School (Tottori)
7 Tottori University (Tottori)
9 Tokorozawa city (Saitama)
13 Tokyo Junshin Girls' School (Tokyo)

August
7 Aichi Education University (Aichi)
21-31 University Coop Study Tour to Europe (Warsaw, Krakow, Prague, Berlin, Helsinki)

September
18 Tabata Elementary School (Tokyo)
25 Canadian International School (Tokyo)
26 Friedensdorf International Support Group in Fussa city (Tokyo

October
17 Chikumazawa Elementary School (Saitama)
19 Denenchofu Futaba Elementary School (Tokyo)
20 Niijima College (Gunma)
21 Kasumigaseki-higashi Junior High School (Saitama)
24 Oi-nishi Junior High School (Tokyo)
27 Nerima-ku (Tokyo)
28 Tohou Girls' Junior High School (Tokyo
29 Nishi Elementary school, Kanuma city (Tochigi)
29 Kita Elementary school, Kanuma city (Tochigi)
29 Ashitaba no kai (Tochigi)
30 Satsuki Elementary school, Kanuma city (Tochigi)
30 Kuga Elementary school, Kanuma city (Tochigi)

November
5   Ginza Junior High School (Tokyo)
15 Nagakute city (Aichi)
17 Sacred Heart Girls' School (Tokyo)
26 Kobe Gakuin University (Hyogo)
28 Hakata, Fukuoka city (Fukuoka)
29 Soroptimist International Kumamoto (Kumamoto)
29 Kumamoto UNICEF (Kumamoto)
30 Seizan Junior School (Kumamoto)
30 Yashiro High School (Kumamoto)


December
1 Kumamoto Marist Gakuen (Kumamoto)
3 Rinkan Elementary School (Kanagawa)
5 Miyoshi city (Saitama)
7 Iiyama Elementary School (Kanagawa)
9 Toda Elementary School (Kanagawa)
9 Aikawa Elementary School (Kanagawa)
15 St. Joseph Girls' Junior High School (Mie)
17 Tamagawa Elementary School (Kanagawa)
17 Aikou Elementary School (Kanagawa)
21 Kiyose-Daisan Elementary School (Tokyo)

2016
January
8 Sacred Heart Girls' School (Tokyo)
16 Koka Gakuen Junior High School (Tokyo)
19-26 Seattle

February
4 Kasugadai Junior High School (Kanagawa)
12 Koen Girls' School (Tokyo)
17 Meiji Gakuin High School (Tokyo)
23 Tana Junior High School (Kanagawa)
24 Shiki city (Saitama)

 (As of November 2015)

------------------------------------------
2014
August
7-8 Aichi Education University

September
13 Suginomori Junior High School (Tokyo)
24 K International School (Tokyo)
28 Kasukabe city (Saitama)

October
7  Sakado city (Saitama)
10 Ginza Junior High School (Tokyo)
15 Canadian International School (Tokyo)
17 Fuchu Daiyon Junior High School (Tokyo)
22 Ushigome Daiichi Junior High School (Tokyo)

November
1  Chikumazawa Elementary School (Saitama)
4　Ouji Daisan Elementary School (Tokyo)
6　Sagami High School (Kanagawa)
8-11 Niigata
12 Taketa High School (Ooita)
13-14 Kumamoto
18 Kiyose Daisan Elementary School (Tokyo)
21 Iiyama Elementary School (Kanagawa)
26 St. Hilda High School (Tokyo)
28 Kiyose Daisan Elementary School (Tokyo)

December
4  Minamigaoka Junior High School (Kanagawa)
5  Kobe Gakuin University (Hyogo)
9　Rinkan Elementary School (Kanagawa)
13 Tsukuda Junior High School (Tokyo)
15 Shokei Junior High School (Tokyo)
17 St. Joseph Girls School (Mie)

What is Hana's suitcase?

Hana's suitcase was loaned to

the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Center

from the Auschwitz Museum in Poland in 2000.

When it arrived, it inspired much conversation among the members of Small Wings,
a group of volunteer students, and other visitors.

All we knew about her was her name, her birthday,
and that she arrived in Auschwitz in October 1944

and was sent to the gas chamber on that same day.

Fumiko Ishioka, Director of the Tokyo Holocaust Center
and the students thought about how to use this one ordinary suitcase
to tell the story of the Holocaust, such enourmous tragedy.

They decided that they wanted to make this suitcase a symbol of life,
not of death of an unknown child.
They wanted to give the Holocaust a human face.
So the search for Hana began.

Through strange coincidence and good luck,

eventually, Fumiko not only found Hana's brother, George Brady, her only surviving family member,

but he shared with her an amazing collection of family photographs and so much memories.

Hana's suitcase has become much more than a historical artifact.

It has become a bridge between a beautiful little girl named Hana

and the children of Japan, and now children of all over the world,
who are learning the lessons of tolerance, compassion, and respect.

1998
Tokyo Holocaust Center was established to teach young students dangers of prejudice, intolerance, and hatred,
and to empower them to build more compassionate society.


1999


Fumiko visited Auschwitz to ask for a loan of artifacts
for the exhibition "The Holocaust Seen
Through Children's Eyes."
Museum at Auschwitz agreed to lend her 5 objects and
sent her photos. One of them was Hana's Suitcase.


March 2000

Hana's suitcase arrived at the Tokyo Holocaust Center.

Who was Hana Brady? Where was she from?

What happened to her parents?

What did she look like?

We knew nothing.

June 2000

Fumiko learned that Hana was in Terezin ghetto
before she was sent to Auschwitz.
She found 5 drawings Hana made in Terezin.


July 2000
Fumiko visited the museum in Terezin.
From the transport list, she found out that Hana had a brother. 
A post-war indication on the records showed that
the brother, George Brady, had survived.
With coincidences and good luck,
Fumiko met his bunkmate in Prague.
He told her George is still well and alive in Toronto, Canada.

August 2000
 Small Wings students and Fumiko wrote to George Brady
and asked him to share his memory of Hana.

September 2000
George Brady sent us four-page long letter of his memories
of his beloved sister together with 4 photographs
of Hana and the family.

January 2001
After more letters and telephone conversations,
Fumiko traveled to Toronto to meet George,
bringing along more letters, drawings, and poems by children
who learned about Hanna's suitcase.

While in Canada, the CBC Radio producer
Karen Levine interviewed George and Fumiko together.
The broadcast was heard across the entire country.

March 2001
George Brady and his daughter, Lara, came to Japan
for the first time to see Hana's Suitcase and
to meet Japanese children.