tear-jerker 復習

今月６日に広島で平和祈念式典が行われ、15日には終戦71年目を迎えます。

Seeking peace beyond sob story of Hiroshima’s ‘paper crane girl’

Consisting of a wrapper for a caramel, an origami crane is just one of hundreds produced by Sadako Sasaki, the Hiroshima girl whose tragic story has been told around the world.
Millions of paper cranes have been folded and shown in Hiroshima in memory of Sadako, who was 2 years old when she was exposed to the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bombing of the city and died of leukemia in 1955.
But that one tiny caramel wrapper crane, on display far away from Hiroshima, has brought together two survivors of the war and the grandson of the man who ordered the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
They now share the goal of having the two countries move past Sadako’s tear-jerker story and truly recognize the pain inflicted on both sides.
In her hospital bed, Sadako folded paper cranes in hopes that it would cure her cancer. She was following a traditional Japanese saying that a wish will be granted if 1,000 cranes are made. She died when she was 12 years old.
Masahiro Sasaki, an older brother of Sadako, was among the crowd of people who visited Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum on June 18 to catch a glimpse of four paper cranes made by U.S. President Barack Obama and to see the message he wrote and signed in the guest book.
During his brief visit to the museum on May 27, Obama paused at the display of Sadako’s paper cranes and took out the origami cranes he said he made himself.
“We have known the agony of war,” the president’s message in the guest’s book reads.
After seeing Obama’s message, Sasaki clasped his hands in front of Obama’s cranes in gratitude for the unexpected gift left after the first-ever visit to Hiroshima by an active U.S. president.

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201608130017.html

今回取り上げるのはtear-jerkerです。
tearがつくことから、「悲しみ、泣く」ことを表していることがわかります。
LDOCEでは“a film, book, or story that is very sad and makes you cry”と定義されています。
『ジーニアス英和辞典』（第五版、大修館書店）では「（物語・映画・劇などの）お涙ちょうだいもの」とありました。

jerkには動詞で「（ものを）ぐいと動かす」という意味があることから、tearとjerkで「涙を誘う」→「お涙ちょうだい」となるかと思いました。

私も中学生の時に、佐々木貞子さんのお話を聞いたときは悲しい気持ちでいっぱいになりました。(flyingbird)