Download PDF (5.43 MB) - ReliefWeb

The United States Institute of Peace would like to thankthe Verizon Foundation for their generous support.Funding has also been provided by the John D. andCatherine T. MacArthur Foundation.Cover art: In 1955, ten years after the bombing of Hiroshima, a 12 year-old Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki died ofleukemia. While she was hospitalized for her illness, colorful paper cranes arrived as ‘get well’ gifts to patients and Sadakoreceived some of them. Believing that making cranes would help her to get well, Sadako began folding cranes, creating morethan 1,000 before her death. Today, the story of Sadako has spread around the world, transforming paper cranes into a symbolfor peace. While Sadako’s story has become fictionalized to some extent, children continue to be captured by the message ofpeace and Sadako’s desire to live, sending their own 1,000 cranes to the Children’s Memorial in Hiroshima, Japan.© Moodboard/SuperStock