Sadako Sasaki Biography

Sadako Sasaki was born on January 7, 1943 in Hiroshima, Japan. She was nineteen months old when the atomic bomb was detonated over Hiroshima. She and her family lived one mile from the blast’s hypocenter. Her brother, mother, and grandmother all amazingly survived the explosion, but her grandmother would die later that day. Sadako’s father was away serving in the military and was called to assist the rescue teams in the bomb’s aftermath.

Sadako’s parents would both suffer illness from the effects of radiation months later, but Sadako and her brother seemed to escape without lasting harm.

Sadako was a particularly athletic child who loved to run. One day, nine years after the bomb’s blast, she experienced a painful swelling under her ears. She was diagnosed with leukemia and given three months to a year to live. With a yearning desire to lift Sadako’s spirits, her parents decided to make her a kimono—an expensive honor usually reserved for mature women in Japan. Together with her father, Sadako chose a cherry blossom design. She attended her class graduation party wearing her beautiful kimono. At the party, her classmates gave her a red notebook signed by each of them and a traditional wooden doll known as a kokeshi.

Back at the hospital, Sadako had befriended a young girl with tuberculosis named Kiyo. One day someone delivered hundreds of folded paper cranes to the hospital. A nurse presented the origami cranes to Sadako and Kiyo. Sadako recalled the legend that anyone who folded one thousand paper cranes would be granted a wish. With great enthusiasm, Sadako and her friend began the effort to do just that. Sadako wished to be healed and to be able to run again. She wished for more than that though. She wished to end all such suffering and to bring peace to mankind.

Despite her deteriorating health, Sadako achieved the ambitious 1,000-crane goal in three weeks. Shortly thereafter Kiyo was indeed cured and released. It was a bittersweet occasion for Sadako, for her own condition had become graver still. So, she steadfastly resolved to fold another thousand. Within a month, however, her health was so poor she could no longer continue. Some 1,500 cranes now filled her room. As Sadako’s last moments approached, her room would also fill with friends and relatives. On the morning of October 25, 1955, Sadako lost her battle.

At the funeral service, Sadako’s body was robed with the cherry blossom kimono. The kokeshi doll, given to her by her classmates, was placed in the casket along with heaps of Sadako’s beloved paper cranes. Sadako’s parents then offered the rest of the cranes to Sadako’s classmates. The cranes now had a new purpose—to offer remembrance of Sadako and to carry her heavenward wherefrom she could protect Hiroshima and the world with her wish for peace.

Her classmates were quite moved and wished to honor Sadako in some way. With the help of their teacher and a determined volunteer, they hatched a plan to build a memorial statue of Sadako and to honor the children who suffered and died from the Atomic Bomb.

With impressive ingenuity, the students astonishingly raised $450,000 from all over Japan. The funds were used to build the beautiful Children’s Peace Monument in Hiroshima. On May 5, 1958, Children’s Day in Japan, the statue crowning the monument was unveiled—a figure of Sadako lifting a crane skyward.

At the base of the monument is a plaque with the following words engraved in stone: “This is our cry. This is our prayer: To create peace in the world.”

Children’s Peace Monument created by Kazuo Kikuchi

Hiroshima, Japan

Photo credit: Max Nossin