"Cuando se puede elegir, es obligado acertar."
"When you can choose, you must be right."

Sadako and the cranes of peace

Cuenta una leyenda japonesa que tu mayor deseo se hará realidad, si elaboras mil grullas de papel. A Sadako, víctima de la radiación de la bomba de Hiroshima y enferma de leucemia, solo le dio tiempo a elaborar 600. Su deseo: curarse y que hubiera paz en el mundo. Sus amigos siguieron con su legado hasta elaborar 1.000 grullas. Hoy Hiroshima tiene un parque dedicado a la paz mundial con la estatua de Sadako y su grulla de papel.

The Hiroshima bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945. Many people died that day, Sadako’s family luckily survived the explosion. However, the bomb dropped a horrible poison which got into people’s bodies without them knowing.

Sadako was a young Japanese girl who was only 2 years old when the bomb was dropped. Nevertheless, she could remember the day of the explosion.

Then, 10 years after the explosion, one day suddenly Sadako fainted. She was taken to the doctor and they made her many tests. The results weren’t good, Sadako had leukemia, which was a kind of cancer caused by the bomb. The doctor told Sadako’s parents that she had only one year left of life.

Her mother made a kimono for making Sadako not to be worried about her illness.

One day, her friend Chizuko came to visit her. She gave Sadako a gift. It was a bird made with a folded golden paper.

 

Sadako and the cranes of peace

Chizuko told  Sadako that she was giving her that bird becau se it was an origami crane, and there is a Japanese legend which says that if you can make one thousand of these cranes you are gifted with one wish.

That day, Sadako and her friend made 23 cranes. This legend gave Sadako hope, after a while Sadako has made 500 cranes! Then, visitors, nurses or other patients gave Sadako paper to make cranes.

Sadako wrote to her schoolmates telling them about cranes of peace and her peace wishes and her situation in the hospital. Her classmates sent her a traditional Japanese Kokeshi doll in order to give her hope and strength.

Unfortunately, few time later, Sadako got even worst. She couldn’t even make a single crane in a whole day. Despite her awful condition she continued trying to achieve her goal.

One day, the doctor called Sadako’s parents telling them that Sadako was about to die. They came with her and his father prepared her favorite food, Ochazuke. She didn’t finish it because she didn’t even have the force to speak.

 

Sadako died on October 25 1955. She made 644 origami cranes

After Sadako’s death, her schoolmates tried to ensure that her willpower wasn’t forgotten, so they decided to safe money to build a sculpture of Sadako in her memory and in memory of all the children who died due to the bomb.

Sadako died on October 25 1955. She made 644 origami cranes.

The initiative took power and Sadako’s story was known throughout the country. Then, people all over Japan were sending money for the cause. Finally the statue was put up in Hiroshima.

Nowadays, every year on Peace Day, thousands of paper cranes lie at its feet. This has made Sadako’s history a Peace symbol.

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