Summer 2007 / Issue #10

With thanks to Sharon Carter for her photography on this page entitled 1000 Cranes. Ms. Carter has a medical degree from Cambridge University. She is a co-editor of Literary Salt, an online journal featuring poetry, fiction, non-fiction, art and photography. She was a recipient of a Hedgebrook residency in 2001 and a Jack Straw writer in 2003.

The paper crane has become an international symbol of peace in recent years as a result of its connection to the story of a young Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki. Sadako was two years old when the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. At age 11, Sadako was diagnosed with Leukemia, "the atom bomb" disease. Sadako's best friend told her of an old Japanese legend whereby anyone who folded a thousand paper cranes would be granted a wish. Sadako hoped that the gods would grant her wish to get well. She went to work on the paper cranes and as legend has it, completed over 1000 before dying on October 25, 1955, at the age of twelve.

In 1958, a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane was unveiled in Hiroshima Peace Park. The following is inscribed at the bottom of the statue:

"This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world".