Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes is a children's historical novel written by Canadian-American author Eleanor Coerr and published in 1977. It is based on the story of Sadako Sasaki.
The book has been translated into many languages and published in many places, to be used for peace education programs in primary schools.
Plot overview
After being diagnosed with leukemia from radiation caused by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Sadako's friend told her to fold origami paper cranes (orizuru) in hope of making a thousand of them. She was inspired to do so by the Japanese legend that one who created a thousand origami cranes would be granted a wish. Her wish was simply to live through her disease so she could fulfill her dream of being on the running team. In this retelling of her story, she managed to fold only 644 cranes before she became too weak to fold any more, and died in her sleep on the morning of October 25, 1955, knowing her family will always be there. Her friends and family helped finish her dream by folding the rest of the cranes, which were buried with Sadako.
Sadako's story
The claim in Coerr's book that Sadako "died before completing the 1000 cranes, and her two friends completed the task, placing the finished cranes in her casket" is not backed up by her surviving family members. According to her family, and especially her older brother Masahiro Sasaki, who speaks on his sister's life at events, Sadako not only exceeded 644 cranes, she exceeded her goal of 1,000 and died having folded approximately 1,450 paper cranes. In his book, The Complete Story of Sadako Sasaki, co-written with Sue DiCicco, founder of the Peace Crane Project, Masahiro says Sadako exceeded her goal.
Sasaki and the family have donated some of Sadako's cranes at places of importance around the world: in NYC at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum on November 19, 2015, at Museum of Tolerance on May 26, 2016, and the Japanese American National Museum three days later. USS Arizona Memorial Crane Donation and President Truman Museum Donation helped by Clifton Truman Daniel, who is the grandson of President Truman.
After her death, Sadako's friends and schoolmates published a collection of letters in order to build a memorial to her and all of the children who had died from the effects of the atomic bomb. In 1999, a statue of Sadako holding a ruby crane was unveiled in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, also called the Genbaku Dome, and installed in the Hiroshima Peace Park.
At the foot of the statue is a plaque that reads: "This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace on Earth." Every year during the Obon holiday, which is a holiday in Japan to remember the departed spirits of one's ancestors, thousands of people leave paper cranes near the statue. A paper crane database has been established online for contributors to leave a message of peace and to keep a record of those who have donated cranes.
Related works
In addition to Eleanor Coerr's story first published in 1977, Sadako's story has become familiar to many school children around the world through the novels The Day of the Bomb (1961, in German, Sadako will leben) by the Austrian writer Karl Bruckner. Sadako is also briefly mentioned in Children of the Ashes, Robert Jungk's historical account of the lives of Hiroshima victims and survivors and about Japan World War II.
Masahiro Sasaki, Sadako's older brother, co-wrote The Complete Story of Sadako Sasaki with The Peace Crane Project founder Sue DiCicco in 2018, bringing what he feels is Sadako's complete story to the English speaking world for the first time. The book contains many family photos and new illustrations never before seen by the public. Masahiro also wrote 'Sadako's One Thousand Paper Cranes', published in Japanese in 2013.
"Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes", a movie by Director George Levenson and based on the book by Eleanor Coerr (book), and written by George Levenson, starring Liv Ullmann as narrator was released in 1991.