Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes is a children's historical novel written by Canadian-American author Eleanor Coerr and published in 1977. It is based on the story of Sadako Sasaki.
First edition
Sadako Sasaki was a Japanese girl who became a victim of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States. She was two years of age when the bombs were dropped and was severely irradiated. She survived for another ten years, becoming one of the most widely known hibakusha—a Japanese term meaning "bomb-affected person". She is remembered through the story of the more than one thousand origami cranes she folded before her death. She died at the age of 12 on October 25, 1955, at the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital.
Sadako Sasaki in 1955
Sadako Sasaki in her casket, her body almost completely covered by flowers.
Japanese children all over the country create these little cranes in memory of Sadako Sasaki. Sadako and the cranes became a symbol for world peace in Japan after her death in 1955.
Japanese schoolchildren dedicate a collection of origami cranes for Sadako Sasaki in Hiroshima Peace Park.