Foreign Friday

Thousands of Origami Crane Strings
hang in the Hiroshima Peace Park Memorial
April 1980

Please note the girl at the top of this memorial holds a large crane. That girl is the likeness of Sadako Sasaki.

Wikipedia states, the thousand origami cranes were popularized through the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who was two years old when she was exposed to radiation from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima during World War II. Sasaki soon developed leukemia and, at age 12, inspired by the senbazuru legend, began making origami cranes with the goal of making one thousand. 

In a popular version of the story as told in the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, she folded only 644 before her death; in her honor, her classmates felt sorry and agreed to complete the rest for her.

Comments

  1. This story brought tears to my eyes!

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  2. Awww I had a mom of one of our premies, make one for every day her baby was in our unit.....over hundred...IT was amazing andHung in our unit for years. Cool memory thanks Nancy

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  3. It's beautiful. Are the cranes hanging inside the statue made of paper too?

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  4. How interesting!! Thanks for the information!!!

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  5. That is a beautiful memorial!! Wonderful story.

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  6. What a fitting, uplifting memorial, and a beautiful story too.

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  7. I have that book, so it was great to see this memorial!

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