 
Sadako
Sasaki
I
will write peace on your wings and you will fly all over
the world
Sadako Sasaki
Grade
Level K-12
Language Arts • Social Studies • Science
War has lasting effects. Long after the aggression has ceased
negative effects remain. Japan is just one of numerous countries
that continue to be plagued by the effects of the atomic
bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The story
of Sadako Sasaki provides a starting point for this discussion
on the need for peace. Sadako was a baby of two on August
6, 1945, unaware of the war that raged around her. On that
day she lost more than her grandmother as an atomic bomb
reduced the city of Hiroshima to a desert of destruction
and radioactive wasteland. She survived the initial blast
with seemingly no ill effects. Ten years passed and Sadako
grew strong and swift. It was as she was practicing for
a competition that she crumpled to the track and was taken
to the hospital. There her worst fears were confirmed. She
had developed leukemia as a result of her exposure to radiation.
During her long hospital stays, Sadako began to fold paper
cranes. According to Japanese legend, if an individual folds
1000 paper cranes, a wish will be granted. With each crane
she folded, the wish was the same-to get well. October of
1955, Sasako folded her last crane-number 644,and she quietly
became another of the many casualties of a war that had
ended ten years earlier. Her classmates finished the remaining
366 cranes to honor Sadako's memory and to share in her
wish that such bombs of destruction would never be used
again. The children told Sadako's story to the world by
sharing the letters they had exchanged during her hospital
stay. In 1958, a monument was erected in Hiroshima's Peace
Park to honor Sadako and all of the children who died because
of the bombs. This monument has become an international
symbol of peace. Every year thousands of children visit
the memorial bringing chains of folded cranes to lay at
the base. Each crane is a prayer for peace-prayers and wishes
that number in the millions.
Sadako
and the Thousand Paper Cranes
Children's
Peace Monument
Sadako
and the Thousand Paper Cranes
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