Crane

Why I made it?

One of my teachers introduced us to the story of Sadako Sasaki at the time. I didn’t have a reason to know this information but as my teacher talked, I got more interested in the story and began wanting to know more. This was the reason I also chose to research origami.

Meaning

The origami crane is a universal symbol of peace, and hope Because of a twelve-year-old Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki. August 6, 1945, Sadako was just two years old when the nuclear bomb called the Little Boy detonated over Hiroshima. She was not in the blast radios, but she was still affected by the black rain which is a mixture of the water, ash, and the radioactive fallout.  

After the event the family just tried to move on from the disaster and restart their lives, but that didn’t lats as long as they would have wished. In 1955 Sadako was diagnosed with leukemia and was eminently hospitalized, even though she had a feeling there would be no cure, she stayed hopeful. She remembered the story of the 1000 origami cranes, she would ask her family to gather as many papers as possible, so that she could make 1000 cranes. She passed away at the age of twelve on October 25, 1955. 

She surpassed her goal of making 1000 cranes instead she made an estimation of 1450 the story of Sadako Sasaki wanted to make an impact on the world. Over 10 million new cranes are donated to the Children's Peace Monument located in Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park.

Interesting Story

The legend is that if you make a crane for every year of the crane's life which is believed to be 1000 years. The crane has many meanings such as peace, hope, good fortune, and loneliness. These characteristics make the crane an important bird, so the person who is able to complete this task is said to have good fortune and is granted a wish. 

A novel was written by a Canadian-American author Eleanor Coerr detailing Sadako's story. Although there are some disputes about events in the story, when it was released in 1977, the emotional and moving nature of Sadako resulted in many Canadian schools adding it to part of their curriculum.