Sasaki Sadako was a Japanese girl who lived near Misasa Bridge in Hiroshima, Japan. Sadako was only two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. At the time of the explosion she was at home, about 1 mile from ground zero.

In November 1954, as a result of radiation sickness, she developed a cold and lumps developed on her neck and behind her ears that slowly moved toward her face. In January 1955, purple spots started to form on her legs. On February 18, 1955 she was diagnosed with leukemia. She was hospitalized on February 21, 1955 and given, at the most, a year to live.

On August 3, 1955, Sadako saw a gift of 1,000 origami paper cranes that were donated to the hospital from the people of Nagoya as a “Get Well” gift. Inspired by the cranes, she started folding them herself spurred on by the Japanese saying that one who folded 1,000 cranes was granted a wish. A popular version of the story is that she fell short of her goal of folding 1,000 cranes, having folded only 644 before her death, and that her friends completed the 1,000 and buried them all with her. This comes from the book Sadako Sasaki and the Thousand Paper Cranes, which incorrectly states the number of cranes folded by Sadako.

Though she had plenty of free time during her days in the hospital to fold the cranes, she lacked paper. She would use medicine wrappings and whatever else she could scrounge up. This included going to other patients’ rooms to ask to use the paper from their get-well presents.

During her time in hospital her condition progressively worsened, her left leg had swelled and turned purple around mid-October. Speaking about the tea on rice that she had requested after her family urged her to eat something, she said, “It’s good.” Those were her last words. With her family around her, Sadako died on the morning of October 25, 1955.

After her death, Sadako’s friends and schoolmates published a collection of letters to raise funds to build a memorial to her and all of the children who had died from the effects of the atomic bomb. In 1958, a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane was unveiled in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, also called the Genbaku Dome. At the foot of the statue is a plaque that reads, This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world.

There is also a statue of her in the Seattle Peace Park. Sadako has become a leading symbol of the impact of a nuclear war. Sadako is a heroine for many girls in Japan. Her story is told in some Japanese schools on the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. Dedicated to her, people all over Japan celebrate August 15 as the annual peace and love day.