The white crane is the scared bird in Japan. It appears throughout Japanese literature and decorates everything from from the Emperor's robes to pottery and painting. Legend has that it lives a thousand years and thus it is a symbol for long life.
Fifty years ago, at the end of World War II, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by atomic bombs initiating the dawn of the Nuclear Age. In Hiroshima, a small girl's home was destroyed but she was not injured. Years later, Sadako was twelve years old and the city's running champion. She became ill one day with leukemia or the A-bomb disease, caused by the radiation from the nuclear bomb. With her friend Chzuko she began to fold a thousand paper cranes hoping that her wish to be well would come true. She courageously folded 1,000 and began folding another 1,000 before she died at age twelve.
Later her classmates started the paper crane project that raised over $100,00 to build the Children's Monument in Hiroshima Peace Park. Each year it is covered with millions of cranes. Ten years ago the foreign children attending Hiroshima International School decided to write a book about Sadako and the Children's Monument and ask classrooms around the world to fold a thousand cranes. They were instructed to send them with their school banner. The foreign children would place the cranes in Peace Park and return a photograph and certificate of membership in the 1000 Cranes Club. Ten years later the 1000 Cranes Club expanded to include a Birds of Peace project in which participants fold birds of peace: sometimes sending their birds to Hiroshima and often to a local hospital or retirement home.
If you would like information on the 1000 Cranes please write to Walter Enloe, former principal of Hiroshimaq International School and now a teacher at Hamline University's Center for Global & Environmental Education, a partner with Journey North. 1536 Hewitt Ave. St. Paul MN 55401 or e-mail at wwenloe@piper.hamline.edu
Journey North 125 North First Street Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401 Phone: (612)339-6959