Sadako and the thousand paper cranes

Sadako and the thousand paper cranes

Sadako and the thousand paper cranes is a real Japanese history which, over the years, it has become a legend which transmits a great spirit, courage and desire to live.

Sadako Sasaki was a girl who was born in Hiroshima, Japan, on January 7th, 1943 and she died on 25th October 1955,with just twelve years old.

When she was two years old, an atomic bomb was dropped by the U.S. Air Force on her city to end World War II. The radiation of this bomb caused the death about 140,000 people and one of them was Sadako, who fell ill with leukemia.

Sadako was a strong, active, athletic and energetic girl. She loved to run and her only dream was to form part of the track team at her school.

One day, they chose her to run in a championship of relay race in her school, and this way, to have the possibility of fulfilling his dream.

From this day, Sadako was not thinking about anything that to practise to win the championship and be able to become the best runner in her school.

It came the day of the Championship and when her turn came, she ran with all her might and, at the end, she felt bad. She has a great pain in the ribs and she felt dizzy.

Months passed and, during that time, she practiced to get into the school team. The dizziness were constant but she had the hope that, some day, they disappear and she kept it a secret.

A sad day in February, while Sadako was running around the playground, everything started to twirl and collapsed on the floor. After this, her family took her to the hospital and, after some testing, the doctors found that Sadako had leukemia and she had to stay admitted. Sadako was devastated.

The next morning, her best friend told her that she had found a way to heal her. She told her that doing, with her own hands, a thousand paper cranes, the gods would grant her a wish. Sadako, during the fourteen months that she was admitted, made ​​644 paper cranes until death did not allow her to do more.

At her death, her companions of class made her 356 cranes, which were those that she was lacking to come to thousand, and they buried them with her. Also, soon after his death, they did a book with all the letters that Sadako wrote to her friends and thanks to which Sadako's history was known throughout the world.

In addition, it made a monument to Sadako in 1958 where she’s holding a golden crane and in whose base, it was recorded her desire:

 

This is our cry.

This is our prayer.

Peace in the world.

 Miriam Navarro Gómez