One Thousand Cranes

Jenny Pratt - Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Sadako Sasaki was a Japanese girl who was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945, near her home in Hiroshima, Japan. Sadako is remembered through the story of attempting to fold a thousand origami cranes before her death, a wish that has been memorialised in popular culture.

Sadako was at home when the explosion occurred, about one mile from Ground Zero. In November 1954, Sadako developed swellings on her neck and behind her ears. In January 1955, purple spots had formed on her legs and subsequently she was diagnosed with leukemia. She was hospitalised in 1955 and given, at the most, a year to live.

On August 3, 1955, Sadako's best friend Chizuko Hamamoto came to the hospital to visit and cut a golden piece of paper into a square to fold it into a paper crane, in reference to the ancient Japanese story that promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane. A popular version of the story is that Sadako fell short of her goal of folding 1,000 cranes, having folded only 644 before her death, and that her friends completed the 1,000 and buried them all with her.

Though Sadako had plenty of free time during her days in the hospital to fold the cranes, she lacked paper. She would use medicine wrappings and whatever else she could scrounge up. This included going to other patients' rooms to ask to use the paper from their get-well presents. Chizuko would bring paper from school for Sadako to use. During her time in the hospital her condition progressively worsened. Around mid-October Sadako requested tea on rice and remarked "It's good." Those were her last words. With her family around her, Sadako died on the morning of October 25, 1955 at the age of 12.

In 1958, a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane was unveiled in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, also called the Genbaku Dome. At the foot of the statue is a plaque that reads:

"This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace on Earth."

Sadako has become a leading symbol of the impact of nuclear war and is also a heroine for many girls in Japan. Dedicated to her, people all over Japan celebrate August 6 as the annual peace day.

When the devastating Tsunami hit Japan in March this year, London-based studios Anomaly and Unit9 joined forces in a design project to help raise funds for its victims.

'We were discussing how we could contribute our resources and our thinking as a creative agency to those affected by the disaster in Japan,’ explains Alfred Malmros of Anomaly. ‘We wanted do something that was more contemplative, that made people stop, reflect and send their thoughts and wishes to the people of Japan.’

Inspired by the legend of Sadako Sasaki, Anomaly approached Unit9, who quickly created a website 'One Thousand Cranes", that features designs provided by artists which can be folded into origami paper cranes. When individuals make a donation to the relief fund, they can pick a design, print it, and make their own crane. Within a few days the website had crane designs donated from illustration agencies and artists like Todd Selby, CIA, Jelly, Dutch Uncle and Blinkart. 

'Our aim is to get people to spend a few minutes folding cranes and send their thoughts to Japan, offering them an opportunity in a moment of crises to take time out and contemplate', explains Malmros.

Jump over to www.onethousandcranesforjapan.com and take a look. The site is continuing to take donations.

Credits: Wikipedia, Framemag, onethousandcranesforjapan.com