A thousand paper cranes. The tragic fate of a girl from Hiroshima: How the Japanese legend of a thousand paper cranes made the whole world empathize Memory of Sadako

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 the girl who was irradiated

Vladimir Lazarev

August 6, 1945, Hiroshima city. American troops dropped an atomic bomb. The world's first atomic bombing killed 80,000 people on the immediate day of the explosion. More than 100,000 people received a lethal dose of radiation. In total, atomic weapons claimed the lives of more than 200,000 innocent people. Two-year-old Japanese girl Sadako Sasaki was two kilometers from the bomb site. She was thrown out of the window by the blast wave, but miraculously survived.

To a little girl Sasaki Sadako She was 2 years old at the time of the explosion: she was born on January 7, 1943, at the height of World War II. Sadako's house was no more than two kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion (about 1.5 km), but Sadako was lucky - she survived. And she didn't even get a scratch.

And then 1954 came. Peaceful year. Japanese industry was already thriving, the “Japanese Economic Miracle” was in the air, and the girl Sadako began to develop an unpleasant red rash on her neck and behind her ears. On January 9, she told her mother that her lymph nodes in her throat had become enlarged.
In June, Sadako underwent another standard medical examination at the ABCC, the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission. “Everything is fine,” the doctors said.

The rash increased, the doctors could not tell the girl’s mother anything, and only by December the diagnosis was made: leukemia. Radiation sickness, consequences of an atomic bomb explosion. On February 21, 1955, the girl Sadako was hospitalized, doctors gave her no more than a year to live.

Daily procedures began. A person fights for life even if he knows for sure that the fight is useless. Treatment for such diseases is aimed at prolonging life, not curing the disease. And the world revolved around Sadako.
How did she live?... - I ask the question again. Just like any cancer patients at an extreme stage. Bruises under the eyes, emaciated body, procedure after procedure. Waiting for death.

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.

This is called "senbazuru". Anyone who folds 1000 paper cranes will receive one wish from fate as a gift - a long life, a cure for illness or injury. The crane will bring it - the desire - in its beak. However, this legend exists not only in Japan - it just takes other forms in other Asian countries. For example, they say that a crane can not only prolong life, but also fulfill any desire..

Senbazuru is 1000 cranes tied together
Sadako started making cranes. It was August, her fingers did not obey her, most of the day she slept or was undergoing procedures. There was little time. She did them partly in secret: she asked other patients for paper (including the one in which packages were wrapped), her friends brought her paper from school.

Her condition worsened before our eyes. By October she could no longer walk at all. My legs were swollen and covered in a rash.

Her family was with her that day. “Eat,” her mother, Fujiko, told her. She ate rice and washed it down with tea. “Delicious,” she said. And these were her last words - Sadako lost consciousness. On the morning of October 25, 1955, she passed away.

Hamamoto and her other friends completed the remaining 356 cranes. They wove senbazura and buried it with it.
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

Vladimir Lazarev

And the girl did not survive, like thousands around her. 1958 Peace Park in Hiroshima. A monument was erected to Sadako with a paper crane in her hand, which is called the “Children’s Monument to Peace.” The inscription on the monument reads“This is our cry. This is our prayer. World peace".

It was created by sculptors Kazuo Kikuchi and Kiyoshi Ikebe and was built with donations from people. Hundreds of people brought paper cranes and whole senbazuru to the monument. Paper structures were destroyed by the rains - but people brought new ones.

Sadako Sasaki is now a symbol of opposition to war. Several of her cranes are kept in the Peace Park, located next to a model of an atomic bomb. The atomic bomb and the crane are two incompatible things, like black and white, like life and death. She is called the child of the world. "Sadako and a Thousand Paper Cranes" is a non-fiction book written by American author Elinor Coerre and published in 1977.

And for me, she is an example of how to fight, even when the outcome is clear, how to value life, how to believe in miracles and hope. Hope until the last!

Tsuru (in Japanese) means crane. A bird with a long neck in China and Japan was considered a symbol of good luck and long life. The Japanese have been lovingly and carefully folding cranes for at least two hundred years.

In Hiroshima, monuments have been erected to a little schoolgirl named Sadako Sasaki. She was not even two years old when Hiroshima was bombed by the atomic bomb. Sadako was then close to the explosion of an atomic bomb. It would seem that the girl did not suffer at all and grew up sweet, smart and healthy.

She ran the fastest in her class and was fond of sports. Her parents died from radiation exposure, and she lived with her uncle's family. And after 10 years, the girl began to get very sick, as she was irradiated by a nuclear explosion. Sadako was taken to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with Leukemia (blood cancer). In order to somehow distract the girl, the doctor told her about an ancient Japanese legend, which says that if a seriously ill person makes 1000 paper cranes, then any of his wishes will come true.

With weakening fingers, Sadako bent the pieces of paper, hoping that the almighty God would restore her health and allow her to return to her peers. She worked every free minute, making cranes from any paper, even from medicinal recipes. The story about the girl was written in newspapers in different countries. People from all over the world, having learned about Sadako, folded the cranes and sent them to Japan. On October 25, 1955, Sadako died. The 644th crane fell out of the girl’s hands, and she fell asleep forever.

Her classmates appealed to the authorities with a request to erect a monument to Sadako and all the children who died from the atomic bombing. 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 cranes to the monument.

Monuments have been erected to the courageous little girl Sadako Sasaki in many cities around the world. This statue is from the Sadako Peace Park in the American city of Seattle.

On October 26, 2000, the Student Association of the Municipal Youth High School Nobori-cho unveiled a monument to the paper crane.

So the paper crane became a symbol of peace, like a dove. And the whole world learned about origami.

The version reflected in the song that Sadako did not have time to make a thousand cranes, but only 644, and her friends added the missing ones after Sadako’s death, is a work of fiction. It originates in the novel by American writer Eleanor Koerr Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes." In reality, Sadako folded her thousand cranes, but this did not restore her health.

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.

for those who are too lazy to look. This is how they are assembled:

Sadako Sasaki is a Japanese girl, a resident of Hiroshima, who survived the atomic bombing. In 1955, 12-year-old Sadako died from the effects of radiation exposure.

Sadako Sasaki was born in 1943, at the height of World War II, in the Japanese city of Hiroshima (Hiroshima, Japan). When an atomic explosion thundered over the skies of Hiroshima in 1945, the Sasaki family lived less than two kilometers from the epicenter. Baby Sadako was then thrown out of the window by the blast wave, and when the mother, shaking with fear, ran out, no longer hoping to see her daughter alive, it turned out that the girl was scared, but was not hurt at all. However, as time has shown, by definition there could have been no casualties in that area.

Years passed, Sadako grew up as a cheerful and active girl, went to school, and sometimes her mother really began to believe that that terrible explosion was just a memory. But at the age of 12, Sadako’s first symptoms appeared - ominous tumors appeared on her neck and behind her ears. This was the beginning of the end, and all the adult residents who survived the explosion in Hiroshima understood this. Once lively and restless, Sadako began to tire quickly, and one day during a school relay race she fell and was unable to get up.

The girl ended up in the hospital on February 21, 1955 - the doctors gave her a year at most. The fact that the increasing incidence of childhood leukemia was a consequence of the atomic bomb became clear already in the early 1950s.

One day in August 1955, her best friend Chizuko Hamamoto came to Sadako’s hospital and brought origami paper with her. She showed Sadako how to fold a crane out of paper, and at the same time told a beautiful legend. Thus, the crane, which is highly revered in Japan, brings happiness and longevity. According to legend, a sick person will certainly get better if he folds a thousand cranes out of paper.

And Sadako got to work. At first she didn't know that she wouldn't have enough time, because she was still a child. She firmly believed in both the wonderful fairy tale and the possibility of her miraculous healing, which, as it seemed to her, was now completely in her hands.

The girl was sorely short of paper - she folded her cranes from all the paper she could find in the hospital. But over time, weakening, Sadako did less and less cranes - the illness made itself felt, she quickly got tired...

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After her death, the girl’s relatives and friends all together completed her wonderful undertaking - a thousand paper cranes.

There is another version of what happened, according to which Sadako had enough time, and she folded her thousand cranes, but, to the girl’s great disappointment, the insidious disease did not recede. Relatives supported Sadako and her faith in miracles as best they could, and then she began a new countdown and began adding up another thousand.

Be that as it may, the wonderful story of a brave girl who fought for life until the very end touched the hearts of millions of people around the world.

At Sadako's funeral, thousands of paper cranes flew in the sky, and the little Japanese girl became a symbol of rejection of atomic weapons.

In 1958, a statue of Sadako Sasaki appeared in Hiroshima; it was erected with money raised throughout Japan. The stone statue stands in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, depicting a girl holding a paper crane. At the foot of the monument there is a sign with the words “This is our cry. This is our prayer. For building peace in the world” (This is our cry. This is our prayer. For peace in the world).

Later, a similar monument to a Japanese girl appeared in Peace Park in Seattle, America.

Several books have been written about young Sadako, the most famous of which is Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, published in 1977 and written by Eleanor Coerr. The book has been translated into many languages ​​and a film has been made based on it.

The paper crane is today a symbol of world peace.

in memory of Sadako Sasaki
M 24.12.2016 01:23:17

Hello!
I remember this message about the cranes of the Japanese girl Sadako Sasaki. I didn’t have time to send her a crane with good wishes, to somehow make her life easier, to make her happy, to wish her a miracle of healing.

Nowadays, the legend that cranes made of paper can make a wish come true is known all over the world. But few remember the tragic circumstances under which this legend became publicly known. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima in August 1945 affected tens of thousands of Japanese, including a little girl whose symptoms did not appear until 9 years later. The legend of a thousand paper cranes was her last hope - like many Japanese, she believed that they could fulfill her deepest desire...

When the United States dropped the first atomic bomb in human history on Hiroshima, Sadako Sasaki was only 2 years old. The epicenter of the explosion was two kilometers from her house; the shock wave threw her out of the window, but the girl did not receive any visible injuries. Signs of radiation sickness appeared in her only 9 years later. One day, during a school relay race, Sadako felt unwell, then attacks of dizziness and severe fatigue began to recur more and more often. During a medical examination, it turned out that Sadako had leukemia (blood cancer).

In February 1955, the girl was hospitalized. The doctors' forecasts were disappointing - she had no more than a year to live. Friends often visited her in the hospital, and one day one of them reminded her of an ancient Japanese legend that a thousand paper cranes can bring healing even to a seriously ill person. The fact is that since ancient times the crane in Japan has been considered a symbol of longevity, happiness and selfless help. Even in the Middle Ages, the tradition of making origami - paper figures - became very widespread. One of the simplest was the “tsuru” - crane, since folding it required few operations. Later, a belief arose: if you make a wish and add a thousand tsuru, it will certainly come true.

The legend was interpreted in different ways, calling the crane both a symbol of longevity, and simply a fulfiller of any desires: “ If you fold a thousand paper cranes with love and care, give them to others, and receive a thousand smiles in return, all your wishes will come true" Sadako believed in this legend, a thousand paper cranes became her last hope for healing. According to one version, she managed to collect much more than a thousand cranes; later a legend was born that she only managed to make 644 cranes, since the girl’s strength left her too quickly. On October 25, 1955, Sadako Sasaki died, but her friends completed the paper cranes after her death, and many more than a thousand cranes gathered for her funeral.

Soon the story of the little Japanese woman became known throughout the world. People were amazed by her patience, courage and undying hope. Her name, like the paper crane itself, became a symbol of the struggle for peace and a constant reminder of the terrible consequences of a nuclear explosion. People from all over Japan began to raise funds to erect a monument in memory of Sadako and all those who died after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In 1958, a monument depicting Sadako holding a paper crane was erected in the Peace Park in Hiroshima. On the pedestal was written: “This is our cry. This is our prayer. World peace". A monument to the girl also appeared in Peace Park in Seattle (USA). In 1995, the Sadako Peace Garden was opened in Santa Barbara (California, USA). The tragic fate of a little Japanese girl inspired poets, directors, artists and sculptors from all over the world. Sadako’s story became the basis for the plot of the film “Hello, Children!”, filmed in 1962 in the USSR. In 1969, Rasul Gamzatov wrote the poem “Cranes”, which became the text of the song of the same name. Eleanor Coher wrote the book “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes” in 1977, which was published in 18 countries, and a film was made based on it in the USA.

And today, debate continues about how justified the US actions were in 1945. Many historians believe that the issue of Japan’s surrender was resolved, there was no military need to accelerate events, and the United States carried out bombings for the sole purpose of demonstrating its nuclear power . , do not let us forget about its consequences for all humanity.