A documentary about Sasaki Sadako is in production

The family of Sasaki Sadako announced a documentary film about the life of Sadoko is in production.

The film, tentatively titled “Orizuru no Kiseki” (The Miracle of the Paper Cranes) was conceived by Sadako’s nephew Sasaki Yuji (50) to mark the 80th anniversay of the beginnin gof the Pacific War between Japan and the US which began on Dec. 7, 1941.  The film follows the story of Sadako and her brother Masahiro and other children and the friendship built between Japan and the U.S. through Sadako’s story.  As well as the harsh experience that Sadako’s parents endured after newspapers reported that the family were trying to profit from their daughter’s death, forcing them to move to Fukuoka.

The film is expected to be released in the summer of 2022.  Crowdfunding for the film can be found here.

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If there is one hibakusha (bombing survivor) from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima that inspires hope, that would be Sasaki Sadako (Note: Sasaki is her last name, Sadako is her first name).

Sadako was caught up in the bombing at the age of two and was severely irradiated but she survived for another ten years until she succumbed to Leukemia due to the atomic bomb radiation

Before her death, Sadako believed that if she folded one thousand origami cranes, she had a chance of survival.

The story of “One Thousand Origami Cranes” is an ancient Japanese legend which promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by the gods.  Some stories believe that you will be granted happiness and eternal good luck.

When you go to Japan, you will see these cranes held together by strings, especially in Hiroshima.

For Sadako, she developed leukemia and at the age of 12, at the hospital, she set out a goal to make a thousand paper cranes.

in the book, “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes”, the book says that she was only able to fold 644 before she became too weak and died on October 25, 1995.  To honor her memory, her classmates agreed to fold the remaining 356 cranes for her.

At the museum, it states that she did complete the 1,000 cranes and continued past that when her wish failed to come true.

But her belief in making the thousand paper cranes inspired hope and thus she and many children inspired the creation of the Children’s Peace Monument at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum Park.  A girl on top of the monument can be seen holding a crane.

This monument stands in memory of all children who died as a result of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.  The monument was originally inspired by the death of Sasaki Sadako, who was exposed to radiation from the atomic bomb at the age of two.  Ten years later, Sadako developed leukemia that ultimately ended her life.

Sadako’s untimely death compelled her classmates to begin a call for the construction of a monument for all children who died due to the atomic bomb.  Built with the contributions from more than 3,200 schools in Japan and donors in nine countries, the Children’s Peace Monument was unveiled on May 5, 1958.

At the top of the nine-meter monument, a bronze statue of a young girl lifts a golden crane entrusted with dreams for a peaceful future.  Figures of a boy and a girl are located on the sides of the monument.

The inscription on the stone block under the monument reads: “This is our cry.  This is our prayer for building peace in the world”.  On the surface of the bell hung inside the monument, the phrases “A Thousand Paper Cranes” and “Peace on the Earth and in the Heavens” are carved in the handwriting of Dr. Yukawa Hideki, Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics.  The bell and golden crane suspended inside the monument are replicas produced in 2003.

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