She was almost two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Ten years later, she died of radiation-induced leukemia.
While in the hospital she began folding white paper cranes and she aimed to make 1000 because this number is traditionally associated with the granting of a wish.
As news of her story spread, soon children in Japan and thirteen other countries began to make a contribution to a memorial in Hiroshima's Peace Park, which was set up in 1958 with the words 'This is our cry, this is our prayer, to build peace in the world' inscribed on its base.
In the 1980s students of the International School, looking for a way to keep this message of peace alive, set up the 1000 Crane Club; they produced a booklet and asked groups of children world-wide to become members by sending 1000 paper cranes for Sadako's memorial. The first response came from an American school in 1986. Children, almost entirely unaided, had started a movement and established a globally recognized symbol of hope for peace.
In the 1980s students of the International School, looking for a way to keep this message of peace alive, set up the 1000 Crane Club; they produced a booklet and asked groups of children world-wide to become members by sending 1000 paper cranes for Sadako's memorial. The first response came from an American school in 1986. Children, almost entirely unaided, had started a movement and established a globally recognized symbol of hope for peace.
Although my younger brother Kris has been a wiz at paper folding since I can remember, my thumbs are not as naturally gifted. But this morning I printed off the directions to make the white crane (and challenge you to do the same) in anticipation of the next time we feel frustrated or angry. It's ready to go -- for tomorrow or two months from now or whenever the next time my blood pressure rises.
Somehow I think that by the time I finish following these directions and figure out how to make it then I'll probably be cooled down because the project won't be finished quickly! Or maybe I'll be so angry at the wad of paper I will have found a way to shift the object of my emotion from the triggering person/event.
Either way I'm going to give it a try..
and I hereby invite you to unofficially join the 1000 Crane Club /Stephanie Smith Anger Management & Prevention Origami Program. HA!
and I hereby invite you to unofficially join the 1000 Crane Club /Stephanie Smith Anger Management & Prevention Origami Program. HA!
