Sadako Sasaki 1000 paper cranes. Legends of origami. What happened next

It's been many years since the Japanese girl Sadako Sasaki shocked the whole world with her story. She was born on January 7, 1943, when World War II was in full swing. Born in the city of Hiroshima, she lived there when her hometown was attacked by an atomic bomb. At this moment she was only two years old.

The house where Sadaki lived was located one and a half kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion, but by luck the girl was not injured. For nine years after the bombing, she lived the life of children her age and was healthy, cheerful and full of energy. Everything changed in November 1954, when she showed the first signs of radiation sickness and on February 21, 1955, she was hospitalized with a diagnosis of blood cancer.

Created by sculptors Kazuo Kikuchi and Kiyoshi Ikebe. The authors of the monument believe that it symbolizes hope for a peaceful future and therefore called the monument the Children's Monument to Peace. Locals more often call it the Obelisk of Paper Cranes.

It stands surrounded by the large trees of the Peace Park, very close to the place over which the atomic column shot into the sky on August 6, 1945. At the base of the monument there is an inscription: “This is our cry and our prayer for world peace.” Several senbazuru are enclosed around the monument in glass cases, Sadako Sasaki (佐々木禎子) grew up as a strong, healthy and active child. During the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, she was at home, just one and a half kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion. At the age of 11, she developed signs of radiation sickness, and the girl was hospitalized with a diagnosis of leukemia.

On August 3, 1955, she was once again visited by her friend, Chizuko Hamamoto. She brought with her a sheet of gilded paper and made a crane out of it. And she told Sadako an old Japanese legend. Anyone who folds 1000 paper cranes will receive a gift from fate - they can make a wish that will definitely come true. Desire - the crane will bring it in its beak.

“senbazuru” - 1000 cranes fastened together.

Sasako Sadaki with her classmates (center, front row)

Sadako began making cranes from whatever paper she could find. She added up her thousand by the end of August and continued to add up. But the desire to survive was not fulfilled.

At the Peace Memorial Museum, paper cranes made by Sadako are placed next to a mock-up of an atomic bomb as two incompatible symbols - life and death. All the letters written to her in the hospital were published, and funds began to be raised throughout Japan for the project of a monument to Sadako - and to all the children who died as a result of the nuclear bombing.

The version that Sadako did not have time to make a thousand cranes, but only 644, and the missing ones were added by her friends after Sadako’s death, is a work of fiction - it originates in the novel “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes” by the American writer Eleanor Coerr. (“Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes”), published in 1977. In reality, Sadako folded her thousand cranes.

The song's original title is “The Japanese Crane,” lyrics by Vladimir Lazarev, music by Seraphim Tulikov, but usually appears anonymous. The song was popular in pioneer camps of the 1980s and beyond (in both the official and unofficial song repertoire), and there are many similar versions.

CRANE

Returning from Japan, having walked many miles,

A friend brought me a paper crane.

There is a story connected with it, there is only one story -

About a girl who was irradiated.

I'll spread paper wings for you,

Fly, don't disturb this world, this world,

Crane, crane, Japanese crane,

You are an ever-living souvenir.

“When will I see the sun?” - asked the doctor

(And life burned thinly, like a candle in the wind).

And the doctor answered the girl: “When winter passes*,

And you will make a thousand cranes yourself.”

But the girl did not survive and soon died,

And she didn’t make a thousand cranes.

The last little crane fell from dead hands -

And the girl did not survive, like thousands around her.

This story happened in 1945, when the first atomic bomb in human history was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Together with half a million of its other inhabitants, the family of the Japanese girl Sadako Sasaki, who was then two years old, also had to endure this misfortune. The city burned and was destroyed to the ground. Sadako was then a little closer than two kilometers from the place where the nuclear explosion occurred, but did not receive any burns or other visible injuries.

A few weeks later, the surviving residents of the city began to die from a terrible, incomprehensible disease. Their strength suddenly left them, they weakened and their soul left their body... Little Sadako’s mother hugged her own daughter, stroked her head and for a long time, silently, watched her play. She never once revealed her anxiety to the child...

At the age of twelve, cheerful and nimble Sadako went to school, studied and played like all children. She loved to run, most of all she loved movement.

Terrible diagnosis

She began to show signs of radiation sickness in November 1954. One day, while participating in a school relay race, after running the girl felt very tired and dizzy. She tried to forget about what happened, but the attacks of dizziness recurred, especially if she tried to run. She didn't tell anyone about this, not even her best friend. Only the mother and the female neighbors who had children suspected something was wrong; each heart sank with unkind thoughts.

One day she fell and could not get up immediately. Sadako was taken to the Red Cross hospital for testing and it became clear that she had leukemia (blood cancer). At that time, many of the girl’s peers were suffering from leukemia and dying. Sadako was scared, she didn’t want to die.

1000 paper cranes

She was lying in the hospital when Chizuko's best friend came and brought with her special paper from which she made a crane, and told Sadako one legend: the crane, which in Japan is considered a lucky bird, lives for a thousand years; If a sick person makes a thousand cranes out of paper, he will recover.

This legend goes back to the Japanese Middle Ages, when it became popular among the nobility to make messages in the form of folded paper figures (“origami”). One of the simplest figures was precisely the “tsuru” - a crane (it required only 12 operations to fold it). In those days in Japan, the crane symbolized happiness and longevity. This is where the belief arose - if you make a wish and add a thousand “tsuru”, it will definitely come true.

Sadako believed in the legend, as any of us, who wanted to live with all our being, probably would have believed. It was Chizuko who made the first crane for Sadako.

A thousand cranes are a thousand pieces of paper. Sadako decided to make a thousand cranes, but due to her illness she was very tired and could not work. As soon as she felt better, she folded small cranes out of white paper.

According to one version of the story, the girl managed to make a thousand cranes, but the disease continued to worsen. Relatives and friends supported her as best they could. And then, instead of giving up in the face of mortal misfortune, or simply being disappointed, she began to make new cranes. There were many more than a thousand of them. People were amazed by her courage and patience.

According to another version, despite the fact that she had enough time to fold cranes, she did not have enough material - paper, she used any suitable piece of paper that she managed to get from nurses and patients from other wards, but she was able to make only 644 cranes and therefore her friends completed the cranes after her death.

Sadako died on October 25, 1955, and many more than a thousand paper cranes flew to her funeral. Thousands of cranes connected by invisible threads.

Memory of Sadako

The courageous little girl Sadako Sasaki became a symbol of rejection of nuclear war, a symbol of protest against war. Inspired by her courage and willpower, Sadako's friends and classmates published her letters. They began planning to build a monument in memory of Sadako and all the other children who died from the atomic bombing. Young people from all over Japan began to raise funds for this project. In 1958, a statue depicting Sadako holding a paper crane was erected in the Peace Park in Hiroshima. On the pedestal of the statue it is written:

“This is our cry, This is our prayer, World peace.”

There is also a statue of Sadako in Peace Park in Seattle, USA. The life-size statue also depicts a girl holding a paper crane. On the pedestal it is written:

SADAKO SASAKI. PEACE CHILD. SHE GAVE US THE PAPER CRANE, TO SYMBOLIZE OUR YEARNING FOR PEACE IN THE WORLD (Sadako Sasaki. Child of Peace. She gave us a paper crane, symbolizing our desire for peace in the world)

The Sadako Peace Garden was opened on August 6, 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and named after Sadako Sasaki. On June 30, 2002, the park entered the Gardens of the World network. The garden is located at La Casa Maria Retreat Center in Santa Barbara, California, USA. Created by Isabel Green and Irma Kavat as a garden for reflection and inspiration. Project of Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and La Casa de Maria. In the depths of the garden there are stones on which cranes are carved.

On October 26, 2000, the Nobori-cho Municipal Youth High School Student Association unveiled a monument to the Paper Crane. The words “Prayers of the paper cranes here” are carved on the pedestal of the monument.

Sadako Sasaki in creativity

The tragic fate of Sadako Sasaki served as the basis for the plot of the feature film “Hello, Children!”, filmed in 1962 at the film studio named after. M. Gorky (dir. Mark Donskoy).

In 1969, the famous poet Rasul Gamzatov, inspired by the story of Sadako, wrote one of his most famous poems, “Cranes,” which became the text for the famous song of the same name.

Children's books, comics, films and cartoons were made about Sadako, and music was written.

The most famous of the books is the book by Eleanor Coerr “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes” (English “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes”) published in 1977 and was published in 18 countries. A film was made based on the book in the USA.

According to the site:

A friend told me... yes, everyone has read this legend, but still...

In Japan, paper cranes are considered a symbol of good luck and longevity.

There is a tradition based on a beautiful legend: “If you fold a thousand paper cranes with love and care, give them to those around you, and receive a thousand smiles in return, all your wishes will come true.”

Japanese girl Sadako Sasaki (January 7, 1943 - October 25, 1955), irradiated during the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Her house was located a mile from the explosion, yet outwardly she continued to grow up as a healthy child. Signs of the disease appeared in November 1954, on February 18, 1955 he was diagnosed with leukemia, and on February 21 he was admitted to the hospital. According to doctors' forecasts, she had no more than a year to live. On August 3, 1955, her best friend Chizuko Hamamoto brought her a piece of golden paper and folded it into a crane, recalling the Japanese belief that a person who folds a thousand paper cranes will have his wish come true.

The legend influenced Sadako, and she began to fold cranes from any pieces of paper that fell into her hands. According to the legend from the book “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes”, she managed to make only 644 cranes. Her friends finished their work and Sadako was buried along with a thousand paper cranes.

A monument was built in memory of Sadako and all the other children who died from the atomic bombing. Young people from all over Japan raised funds for this project, and in 1958 a statue depicting Sadako holding a paper crane was erected in the Peace Park in Hiroshima. On the pedestal of the statue is written: “This is our cry. This is our prayer. World peace". The little courageous girl became a symbol of rejection of nuclear war, a symbol of protest against war.

In 1990, a monument to Sadako was erected in Peace Park in Seattle (USA), in 1995 - a Children's Peace Statue in Santa Fe (USA, New Mexico - the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was made in this state; the statue in Santa Fe - "sister" of the Hiroshima Children's Memorial), in the same year the Sadako Peace Garden was opened in Santa Barbara with a stone engraved with a crane. In 2000, a monument to a golden paper crane was erected near Sadako's school in Hiroshima.

It is believed that 10 thousand paper cranes will save one life.

Cranes are a symbol of purity, happiness, honesty, and readiness for selfless help. The Japanese called cranes “people in feathers,” and called the bird “the Honorable Mr. Crane.” The Japanese crane is the hero of many fairy tales and legends. For the Japanese, the crane symbolizes longevity and prosperity. Strangely united into one hieroglyph with the tsurukame turtle, the crane became a wish for long life. The crane also symbolizes hope. It is believed that if you make a thousand sembazuru paper cranes, your wishes will come true and even a serious illness will recede.

Tsuru werewolf cranes in Japanese mythology, which quite rarely turn into people, in human form are very kind, sweet, beautiful creatures with an all-understanding look. They often take the form of wandering monks and travel in search of those in need of their help. They hate violence.

Everywhere in Japan there is a legend about a wounded crane that turned into a beautiful girl who married the young man who saved her. The girl turned out to be an excellent weaver. In the form of a crane, she wove amazing fabrics from her feathers, closing herself off from everyone in the room. When her husband spied on her, she became a bird again and flew away.

It is believed that if cranes turn into people, they often take the form of wandering monks and travel in search of those who need their help.

This charred children's bicycle, perhaps, became for me the most vivid impression of Hiroshima. At 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, the city was hit by “Baby,” as the Americans affectionately nicknamed the nuclear bomb dropped on the city. Within seconds of the explosion, the temperature within a kilometer radius of the epicenter reached 4,000 degrees, turning tens of thousands of people into ashes. Flocks of migratory birds burned in the air, falling onto the burning Hiroshima in the form of coal. The Japanese did not know that the worst thing awaited them ahead and it was called radiation exposure, which killed many more people than from the explosion itself. Thousands of rescuers and military personnel who arrived the next day to extinguish the burning city worked with their bare hands, receiving lethal radiation and died in terrible agony without even understanding what was happening to them. Today, Hiroshima is a completely modern student and industrial city, where there is almost nothing reminiscent of the atomic bombing. "Almost nothing -

Frankly, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not the goal of our trip to Japan. We were interested in what was 30 kilometers south of Nagasaki. Accordingly, moving to the south of the country, we could not help but visit these two cities, with which one of the most terrible dramas of the 20th century is connected.

We are entering Hiroshima -

City center -

The symbol of Hiroshima is this dilapidated building of the former exhibition center in the very center of the city, one of the only ones that survived the atomic explosion. It’s hard to believe, but in a not-so-small city of 400,000 people, no more than a dozen of the most massive buildings survived the explosion. Everything else was destroyed -

More than 200,000 residents of Hiroshima became victims of the explosion; in other words, every second person died -

The building before and after the explosion -

Nearby is an exhibition on the topic of the explosion and its consequences -

Journalists from the German RTL interview a man who survived an atomic explosion. He was a child then -

This is the old city center with the picturesque embankment of the Ota River, where now absolutely nothing has been preserved. Except for one single building -

Before August 1945, the center of Hiroshima looked like this:

August 6, 1945 Hiroshima became like this, this is a color photo taken by the American delegation two weeks after the explosion -

The epicenter of the explosion was a three-minute walk from the above-mentioned exhibition center, which became a symbol of Hiroshima. The bomb exploded 600 meters above the ground right above this place -

Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Bombing is celebrated on August 6 every year, but people also come here on ordinary days. Schoolchildren are required to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this is part of the school curriculum, so that they remember the tragic history of their own country -

Laying of Japanese cranes at the memorial to those killed in Hiroshima -

Do you know what Japanese cranes symbolize? Remember the good old Soviet song "Japanese Crane" -

We are talking about the girl Sasaki Sadako, who on August 6, 1945, during the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, was at home, just one and a half kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion. She survived, but was irradiated and soon began to show signs of leukemia. According to Japanese legend, a person who folds a thousand paper cranes can make a wish that will surely come true. The legend influenced Sadako, and she, like many hospital patients, began to fold cranes from any pieces of paper that fell into her hands. Meanwhile, Sadako's health steadily deteriorated and she died on October 25, 1955. She managed to make only 644 cranes. Her friends finished their work, and Sadako was buried along with a thousand paper cranes. This monument is dedicated to her -

Monument nearby -

Peace Bell in Memorial Park -

There is also an impressive museum dedicated to the atomic bombing -

The museum has a lot of exhibits, photos and video materials, but most impressive are things like... remote cancer tumors that arose in hundreds of thousands of people exposed to radiation -

As has already been said, Hiroshima is a modern city, rebuilt on the ruins of the former Hiroshima -

The second building preserved in the city is the main office of the National Bank of Japan. The building was located not far from the epicenter of the explosion, but due to its massiveness it survived. However, all 42 bank employees were burned to death inside. A bank branch is located here today -

Memorial plaque on the wall of the bank. Please note that already on August 8, two days after the explosion, the branch was operational again thanks to bank clerks arriving from other cities. Without a doubt, the bank employees were struck by radiation sickness (which the Japanese did not know about at that time) and their fate was tragic -

These trams are only stylized as the old ones that ran here before 1945, but at least the trams remind of old times -

Some buildings, to one degree or another, survived the explosion, but were nevertheless demolished. They were uninhabitable due to the overpowering Geiger counter in their walls -

Such places leave very mixed feelings. Was the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki necessary? Probably, it is needed strategically - thanks to it, the Second World War was ended and the lives of millions were saved. Do we feel sorry for the hundreds of thousands of innocent people who died in terrible agony? It's certainly a pity.

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The whole story as we know it is a lie!!!

Everyone, of course, knows about the story about 1000 cranes..."Make 1000 paper cranes and your wish will come true." This story is mentioned both in anime and simply in articles about Japan and origami.
There is a sad story about a Japanese girl - Sadako Sasaki (January 7, 1943 - October 25, 1955), who lived in the city of Hiroshima in Japan.

On August 6, 1945, during the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, she was at home, just a mile from the epicenter of the explosion, and survived. I grew up as a strong, healthy and active child. But after a while, in November 1954, she showed signs of radiation sickness.

At the hospital, the doctor told the Girl about the legend of a thousand cranes. According to legend, the man who folded thousand paper Japanese cranes(tsuru- a traditional symbol of happiness and longevity), can make a wish that will definitely come true. Sadako began to fold cranes from any pieces of paper that fell into her hands.

On October 25, 1955, she died after making 644 cranes...

Monument to Sadako Sasaki in Hiroshima city, Japan

In 1958, in Hiroshima, in Peace Park, a monument depicting Sadako Sasaki with a paper crane in his hand was erected using private donations. On the pedestal it is written: “This is our cry, This is our prayer, World peace.” Every year people bring thousands of paper birds to the monument.
There is also a statue of Sadako in Peace Park in Seattle, USA.

A song was also dedicated to Sadako Sasaki.

Japanese crane
words by Vladimir Lazarev, music by Seraphim Tulikov
Returning from Japan, having walked many miles,
A friend brought me a paper crane.
There is a story connected with it, there is only one story -
About a girl who was irradiated.

I'll spread paper wings for you,
Fly, don't disturb this world, this world,
Crane, crane, Japanese crane,
You are an ever-living souvenir.

“When will I see the sun?” - asked the doctor
(And life burned thinly, like a candle in the wind).
And the doctor answered the girl: “When winter passes*,
And you will make a thousand cranes yourself.”

But the girl did not survive and soon died,
And she didn’t make a thousand cranes.
The last little crane fell from dead hands -
And the girl did not survive, like thousands around her.

*Usually it is sung: “when spring comes…”

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