佐々木 禎子 Sadako Sasaki and the thousand paper cranes

Sadako was a Japanese girl born during World War II, in Hiroshima, Japan. When the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Sadako was only two years old. She and her parents were some of the few who survived the blast. They continued to live in Hiroshima after the war ended, but never forgot the many friends and family they lost in the war.

As a young girl, Sadako loved to run and play with her friends. She was a very fast runner. When she was in grade 6, she started to have dizzy spells, and one day was sick at school. The doctors discovered that she had developed leukemia, a type of cancer that was caused by the effects of the atomic bomb.

Sadako was very sick, and had to spend a lot of time in the hospital. The doctors feared that she did not have much time left to live. Chizuko Hamamoto, Sadako's best friend, came to the hospital to visit one day. She cut a golden piece of paper into a square and folded it into a paper crane. At first Sadako didn't understand why Chizuko was doing this, but then Chizuko told her the story about the paper cranes.

An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane. Sadako wished that she would get better, and that there would be peace in the world.

Sadako immediately set out to fold one thousand paper cranes in order that her wish would come true. Though she had plenty of free time during her days in the hospital to fold the cranes, she lacked paper. She used medicine wrappings and whatever else she was able to scrounge.

She continued to fold as many cranes as she could, but her condition progressively worsened. With her family around her, Sadako died on the morning of October 25, 1955.

For nearly a year, Sadako folded cranes and remained optimistic that her wish to get well, and her wish for peace would be answered. Sadako folded 644 cranes before she passed away.

After Sadako’s passed away, her friends finished folding the remaining 356 cranes and the paper birds were buried with her. Her friends made a book of her letters and, soon Sadako’s story was known throughout Japan. In 1958 Sadako’s monument was unveiled in the Hiroshima Peace Park. Sadako holds a golden crane with outstretched hands.

Sadako’s friends also started a crane folding club to remember all the children who were killed by the atom bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of People still place thousands of paper cranes beneath Sadako’s statue on Peace Day.

Children’s Peace Memorial Hiroshima, Japan

There is a wish engraved on the monument built in Sadako’s memory:

“This is our cry, this is our prayer; Peace in the World”

Sadako Sasaki January 7, 1943 – October 25, 1955