1000 cranes

The banner just appeared one day when I arrived in the morning, bearing the black and white image of a pair of hands cupping a single red paper crane with the tagline “a wish upon a crane”. Looking at it brought back so many memories.

The sight of the statue of a girl child holding one such life-sized version of the crane aloft over her head in the Hiroshima Peace Park, surrounded by booths holding uncountable origami cranes sent in from all over the world flooded my mind’s eye.

My one visit introduced me to Sasaki’s story that inspired the culture of folding cranes for a single wish, or as more believe, for health and a speedy recovery from illness. One can say that it was an almost painstaking task for her who was critically ill. Even though circumstances were not on her side, she continued to create the paper cranes, using pieces of plastic, any scraps of small paper she could find, more often than not, using a pin to craft the paper. It was right after the Second World War and paper was a scarce luxury to be found, hence the substitution of that with small pieces of plastic, aided by a pin as the material diminished in size. Right up till her death, Sasaki folded cranes with determination admirable zeal, seemingly adding a part of her wish into each crease she added to the material.

This one young girl could not have known then how her story would be retold in future, how it would give life to the idea of peace for the sake of the children of the world. Her courage and suffering in the face of the inevitable caused by war, one of the cornerstones to peace proposals, lighting the flame of hope that the future generation will never have to firsthand behold the pain caused by misuse of nuclear power.

Here’s to Sadako Sasaki, your one simple wish may not have come true, but we will carry the memory of you and your life in our hearts. I think I look forward to the production and may they have done justice to her story.

By Zi Ying