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WW2: True story of a girl who followed a Japanese legend that if you fold 1000 paper cranes, your wish will be granted
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
What you need to know before your trail
Hiroshima-born Sadako is lively and athletic–the star of her school’s running team. And then the dizzy spells start. Soon gravely ill with leukemia, the “atom bomb disease,” Sadako faces her future with spirit and bravery. Recalling a Japanese legend, Sadako sets to work folding paper cranes. For the legend holds that if a sick person folds one thousand cranes, the gods will grant her wish and make her healthy again. Based on a true story, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes celebrates the extraordinary courage that made one young woman a heroine in Japan.
Travel Guide
Hiroshima
Her wish was simply to live. In this retelling of her story, she managed to fold only 644 cranes before she became too weak to fold any more, and died on the morning of 25 October 1955. Her friends and family helped finish her dream by folding the rest of the cranes, which were buried with Sadako.
In 1958, a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane was unveiled in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, also called the Genbaku Dome, and installed in the Hiroshima Peace Park.
At the foot of the statue is a plaque that reads: “This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace on Earth.” Every year on Obon Day, which is a holiday in Japan to remember the departed spirits of one’s ancestors, thousands of people leave paper cranes near the statue.
Streetview Maps
A) Japan - Hiroshima - Sadako
A) Japan - Hiroshima - Sadako statue
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
Destination: Hiroshima, Japan Author/Guide: Eleanor Coerr Departure Time:WW2
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