MANILA, Philippines—The paper crane has become a global symbol of the hope for peace with the story of Sadako Sasaki, a girl who suffered and died from the long-term effects of the Hiroshima bombing.
Sadako was only two years old when a nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, killing over a hundred thousand people.
Sadako’s family survived the explosion, and the young girl led a normal and healthy life, even leading her 6th grade class to win in a relay. All that changed in 1955, when she caught a cold and suffered from stiffness in her neck. She was soon diagnosed with leukemia, a cancer caused by her exposure to radiation.
In the hospital, Sadako heard about the myth that anyone can have a wish granted after folding 1,000 paper cranes.
Set to wish for her complete recovery, Sadako started making paper cranes. Her brother hung these from the ceiling of her hospital room. Once, she wrote: “I will write peace on your wings, and you will fly all over the world.” Sadako did not see her wish fulfilled. She died on Oct. 25, 1955. She was only 12.
Before she died, she was quoted as saying, “Please treasure the life that is given to you. It is my belief that my small paper crane will enable you to understand other people’s feelings, as if they are your own.”
Sadako’s struggle touched the lives of her friends and many young Japanese, who raised money to build a monument to her and all the young victims of the atomic bomb.
The statue, which shows Sadako holding a golden crane, was unveiled in 1958 at the Hiroshima Peace Park. At the bottom of the statue, the wish of the children was engraved: “This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world.
In 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and La Casa de Maria dedicated the Sadako Peace Garden in Santa Barbara, California.
In 2009, Sadako’s brother, Masahiro, donated one of her original origami cranes to the Tribute WTC Visitor Center in New York. Lawrence de Guzman, Inquirer Research
Sources: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, CNN.com, bbc.co.uk