Sadako and the thousand paper cranes

Sadako and the thousand paper cranes

Elena Pérez Barrioluengo, Ph. D.

What if you could have one wish? What would it be? According to Japanese tradition, folding 1,000 paper cranes gives you a chance to make one special wish come true.

Today we are going to learn about the story of Sadako Sasaki. Her story has inspired millions around the world and her memory transformed the origami crane into an international symbol of peace and hope.

On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion immediately killed an estimated 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure.

Sadako Sasaki was two years old on August 6th, 1945 when the city of Hiroshima in Japan was bombed during the II World War.

Sadako and family lived a little over one mile from the bomb’s hypocenter. A blinding white light flashed through the city, and a huge boom was heard miles away when it exploded over Sadako’s hometown. Immediately, fires broke out all over the city and radioactive black rain began to fall from the sky. Sadako, with her mother and brother, escaped the fires. Shigeo, Sadako’s father, was not in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing. Shigeo reunited with his family after the bombing, and Sadako and her family returned to Hiroshima to rebuild their lives.

The Sasaki family would grieve for Sadako when she became sick with leukemia, called atomic bomb disease because it was likely caused by the radioactive black rain that fell on Sadako and Hiroshima on the day of the bombing.

While in the hospital, Sadako remained optimistic and resilient. Even though Sadako was sick, she continued to bring happiness and cheer to her family and friends.

Sadako started folding paper cranes during her stay in the hospital and pray that she would get well again. Sadako kept folding cranes even though she was in great pain. Even during these times of great pain, she was known by hospital staff and other patients as cheerful and helpful, and always asking for scraps of paper or material to continue folding cranes.

Sadako’s classmates had lost many of their friends to the bomb disease and were saddened by the loss of Sadako. They decided to form a unity club to honor her. On May 5, 1958, almost 3 years after Sadako had died, enough money was collected to build a monument in her honour. It is now known as the Children’s Peace Monument and is located in the center of Hiroshima Peace Park, close to the spot where the atomic bomb was dropped.

The act of folding a crane started by Sadako and her classmates turned into a national, then an international, children's peace movement. Children from all over the world still send folded paper cranes to be placed beneath Sadako’s statue. In so doing, they fulfill the wish engraved on the base of the statue: "This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world".

We are going to send our paper cranes to the Children's Peace Monument in Peace Memorial Park. In this way, our desire for peace will be recorded for posterity.

“This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world."

SADAKO SASAKI