One of the Class XIV Rotary Peace Fellows, Rashmi, has a goal of making 1000 paper cranes by the time she graduates from ICU in 2017. She makes a few whenever she has extra time and folds them out of whatever size paper she can find. The plastic bag in her room is growing slowly with the daily additions of the handmade birds.
She’s making the paper cranes, or orizuru in Japanese, in memory of Sadako
Sasaki (January 7, 1943 – October 25, 1955) from
Hiroshima, who has become a symbol of the innocent victims of nuclear warfare
because of her story. Sadako was only two years old when the atomic bomb was
dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. At the time of the explosion she was at
her home, which was about a mile away from the explosion. Though she was blown
out of a window by the force of the blast, she survived without any obvious
injuries and grew up like any other girl and even became an important member of
her school’s relay team.
But in November of 1954, strange swellings
started appearing on different parts of Sadako’s body and she was diagnosed
with leukemia. She was hospitalized on February 20, 1955 and doctors predicted
that she had about a year to live. Sadako’s case of leukemia was not uncommon
or surprising at that time as the increase in the number of cases was caused by
radiation exposure from the bomb.
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| Some of Sadako's actual cranes on display at the Hiroshima Peace Museum |
Two days after her initial treatment, Sadako
met a new roommate, an older student who taught her how to fold origami paper
cranes. She also told her the Japanese legend, which promises that anyone who
folds 1000 of the cranes will be granted a wish. To make the number of cranes
herself, Sadako used the paper from different medical packaging and the
wrapping paper from other patients’ presents. One version of the story says
that Sadako wasn’t able to complete her goal and made only 644 cranes before
her death. Afterwards, her friends finished the rest of the missing birds and
buried them with her. An alternate story states that by August 1955 Sadako had
not only finished 1000 paper cranes but continued to fold until she reached
about 1,400 in total, which her parents kept. Her classmates folded 1000 more
and buried them with her.
Sadako and the innumerable other child
victims of the bombing are commemorated at the Children’s Peace Monument in
Hiroshima. Thousands of paper cranes sent by people from all over the world are
offered around the monument. The paper crane continues to be a symbol of peace,
which was Sadoko’s last dying wish. Though nuclear weapons continue to be a
dark reality, we keep folding not only to remember all those who suffered but
as a promise to one day make Sadoko’s wish for peace come true.
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