One day Sadako became so dizzy that she fell down and couldn’t get up. All of her school-mates informed the teacher who contacted her parents. Later Sadako’s parents took her to the Red Cross Hospital to see what was wrong with her.
Doctors performed many tests and discovered that Sadako had a kind of blood cancer called leukemia. Nobody could believe it. At that time, leukemia was called the
“A-bomb disease”. Almost everyone who got this disease died, and Sadako was very scared. She wanted to go back to school, but she had to stay in the hospital.
One day, Sadako's best friend, Chizuko, came to visit her and brought with her some origami (folding paper). She told Sadako the legend of the crane.
It is Japanese legend that folding 1000 cranes (senzaburu) so pleases the gods that the folder is granted a wish. Sadako wished to get well. So, after hearing the legend, Sadako decided to fold 1,000 cranes.
Sadako's family worried about her a lot. They often came to visit her in hospital to talk to her and to help her fold cranes. After she folded 500 cranes she felt better and the doctors said she could go home for a short time, but by the end of the first week back home the dizziness and fatigue returned and she had to return to the hospital.
Sadako continued to fold cranes. Even though she was in great pain, she tried to be cheerful and hopeful. Not long afterwards, with her family standing by her bed, Sadako went to sleep peacefully, never to wake up again. She had folded a total of 644 paper cranes.
Sadako's story had a profound impact on her friends and classmates. They completed her thousand cranes and continued to raise money from school children all over Japan to build a statue to honor Sadako and all the children affected by the bomb.
Every year, children from around the world fold cranes and send them to Hiroshima where they are placed around the statue. Because of Sadako, the paper crane has become an international symbol of peace and well wishes.
This is our cry.
This is our prayer.
Peace in the world.
