"I will write "peace" on your wings, and you will fly all over the
world".
Sadako Sasaki was a Japanese girl who lived in
Hiroshima, in Japan. In August 1945, when she was two year's old, the
atomic bomb was dropped about one mile away from her home. She and her
family managed to escape, although her grandmother ran back to fetch
something from their house and was never seen again.
Sadako had a normal childhood and was a very good runner. Her class,
which won the school's relay race, was very proud of her running skills.
But it was during a running race that she first fell ill, when she was
11 year's old.
Sadako is in the middle of the front row
When she was 12, in 1955, her illness became worse and she was diagnosed
with leukaemia, a cancer which affected many children who had been
exposed to radiation because of the atom bomb. Her family was told that
she would have less than one year to live, and as she grew more ill she
was put into hospital.
A friend told her about an old Japanese legend which says that if you
fold 1000 origami cranes, you will be granted a wish. The crane is a Japanese symbol of long life (or
longevity).
She didn't always have origami
paper, so she used whatever she could find - newspaper, medicine
wrappings, and scraps of wrapping paper from get well gifts. She folded
and folded. Some people say that she folded over 1000 cranes before she
died, but others say she only managed to fold just over 600. We don't
know what the truth is, but we do know that sadly Sadako didn't manage
to fight off the terrible cancer. She never gave up and was courageous
and cheerful to the end. In October 1955 she died, peacefully, in the
hospital.
In memory of Sadako...
The children in her class were very sad, and decided to try to raise
money for a special memorial for Sadako and other children who had died
because of the atomic bomb. They wrote and published a book about Sadako,
and they sent letters to schools all over Japan. It took them 3 years to
raise enough money to build the Children's Peace Monument, in Peace
Memorial Park, Hiroshima. It has a statue of Sadako on the top, as well
as an origami crane. At the bottom of the statue there is a plaque which
has a message from the children, which reads:
"This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world."
The Children's Peace Monument was officially opened on
Children's Day
(5th May) 1958.
Every year, thousands of children come to the memorial
and leave their own folded origami cranes in memory of children who have
died because of war, and as a prayer for peace. If you look carefully at
the picture above you can see thousands of cranes protected by the white
structures around the edge of the memorial.
There is also a statue of Sadako in Peace Park, Seattle, USA:
Find out more about Sadako
This beautiful animation of Sadako's story was made by 11 year old
Rachel Cohn
Please do not let your children browse video storage sites unsupervised.
