Paper Cranes and the Children's Peace Monument - Hiroshima, Japan

Visitors to Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan find brighly colored origami cranes everywhere.  These cranes are a tribute to Sadako Sasaki and a wish for peace.   Sadako was two years old when she was exposed to the atomic bomb that devastated Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.  She suffered no apparent immediate injuries.  However, nine years later, Sadako was diagnosed with leukemia and was admitted to the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital.  Believing that folding paper cranes would help her recover, she continued folding them until her death on October 25, 1955.

Sadako's death triggered a campaign to build a monument to peace.  The Children's Peace Monument (also called the "Tower of a Thousand Cranes") that stands in Peace Park is the result of that campaign.  Now, approximately 10 million cranes are offered each year at the Monument. 

We have chosen a list of titles that reflect the hard work that peace and reconciliation require - not unlike the seemingly impossible task of folding one thousand paper cranes.