Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

Mrs Booth was at Southern Cross University in the library where she noticed a beautiful dress with origami cranes sewn on. It was created by another student, named Brianna, for her Integrated Technology Unit. Mrs Booth was amazed by the work that had gone into constructing the dress and also moved by the story that inspired it – Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.
This is a true story of a girl, Sadako Sasaki, who lived in Hiroshima, Japan, at the time of the atomic bombing by the United States. She developed leukemia from the radiation and spent her time in a nursing home creating origami (folded paper) cranes in hope of making a thousand of them. She was inspired to do so by the Japanese legend that one who created a thousand origami cranes would then be granted a wish. Her wish was simply to live. However, she managed to fold only 644 cranes before she became too weak to fold any more, and died shortly after. Her friends and family helped finish her dream by folding the rest of the cranes, which were buried with Sadako. They also built a statue of Sadako holding a giant golden origami crane in Hiroshima Peace Park.
Now every year on Obon Day, which is a holiday in Japan to remember the departed spirits of one’s ancestors, thousands of people leave paper cranes near the statue. On the statue is a plaque: “This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace on Earth.”
The book has been translated to many languages and published in many places, to be used for peace education programs in primary schools. Sadako’s story was also dramatised at the opening ceremony of the Goodwill Games 1990 in Seattle wherein Seattle schoolchildren, working from the 644 cranes sent by Japanese schoolchildren, completed the unfinished 356 cranes for Sadako, and sent them aloft into the skies in honour of Sadako and world peace.

sadako from Mehreen Bazm on Vimeo.