1000 Cranes at TheatreWorks

There is a legend that says that any person who folds a thousand paper cranes will be granted a wish. Sadako Sasaki was two years old when Hiroshima was destroyed. Ten years later, in 1955, when Sadako was a happy 12 year old school girl, the radiation sickness came. Sadako began to fold cranes, wishing to be well again, wishing that an atom bomb like the one that took her grandmother would never be dropped again. Before her death, Sadako folded 640 cranes. Her friends and classmates folded the remaining 356 to make one thousand. Three years later, in Hiroshima Peace Park, they unveiled a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane in her outstretched arms with this inscription: “this is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world.” Every year since then, children have sent thousands of cranes to be placed at the foot of her monument. This play tells the story of Sadako and of how her spirit of hope and strength continues to inspire young people the world over to work for peace.