In Hiroshima there is a children’s memorial where people from all over the world leave paper origami cranes. They are the symbol of happiness and long life in Japan. The story behind them is one of a young girl, Sadako Sasaki, who was dying of cancer after the effects of radiation from the nuclear bomb.
Sadako lived near Misasa Bridge in Hiroshima, Japan. Sadako was a victim of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and was only two years old on August 6, 1945. At the time of the explosion she was at home, about 1 mile from ground zero. Ten years later she was diagnosed with leukemia, which her mother called “an atom bomb disease.”
In November 1954, lumps developed on her neck and behind her ears. In January 1955, purple spots started to form on her legs. She was hospitalized on February 21, 1955 and given, at the most, a year to live.
On August 3, 1955, Chizuko Hamamoto — Sadako’s best friend — came to the hospital to visit and 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 retold the story about the paper cranes. Inspired by the crane, she started folding them herself, spurred on by the Japanese saying that one who folded 1,000 cranes was granted a wish.
She thought if she could make 1,000 cranes she would live. She made 644 before she died. Her classmates made the other 356 cranes after her death. Since then people from all over the world have been making the cranes, as a symbol of peace, and leaving them at this memorial.
