The tsuru or crane has long had a symbolic meaning in the tradition of Japan. But the tradition of folding a "tsuru" to "make your with come true"" was popularized in the west with the publication of the story "Sadako and the 1000 cranes", a story about a Japanese girl, Sadako Sasaki, who lived in Hiroshima at the time of the atomic bombing at the end of WWII. She developed leukemia from the radiation and spent her time in a nursing home creating origami (folded paper) cranes in hope of making a thousand of them. She was inspired to do so by the Japanese saying that one who created a thousand origami cranes would then be granted a wish. Her wish was simply to live. However, she managed to fold only 644 cranes before she became too weak to fold any more, and died shortly after. Her friends and family helped finish her dream by folding the rest of the cranes, which were buried with Sadako. They also built a statue of Sadako holding a giant golden origami crane in Hiroshima Peace Park. (Wikipedia)
4/5/11
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