Childrens' Peace Memorial

Sadako Sasaki was two years old when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. She was seemingly unaffected even though she had been through the "black rain" whose radiation was more deadly than the initial radiation from the bomb. She developed leukaemia and then died after eight months when she was twelve years old.

When Sadako was first hospitalised, her friend, Chizuko showed her how to fold golden paper to make a crane. She then told her the story of the crane:

"The crane is supposed to live for a thousand years. If a sick person folds one thousand paper cranes, the gods will grant her wish and make her healthy again."

So Sadako started folding paper cranes but number six hundred and forty four was the last one she folded before she died on October 25th, 1955. Her classmates folded the other three hundred and fifty six cranes and dreamt of building a monument to Sadako and all of the other children who were killed by the bomb.

People continue to send chains of 1,000 cranes to be placed in the monument. A figure of Sadako stands atop the monument and the following is engraved on the base of the statue:

"This is our cry,

this is our prayer,

peace in the world."

The paper crane is now an international symbol of peace.