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Maarten Heerlien · CC BY 2.0
Post-war · 1943–1955
Sadako Sasaki
佐々木禎子 · Japan
Victim of the Hiroshima atomic bomb
She was two years old when the atomic bomb hit Hiroshima. Diagnosed with leukaemia in 1955, she folded more than a thousand paper cranes in hospital and died at the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital on 25 October that year, aged just 12. Her story made the paper crane a symbol of the wish for peace.
Where the story happened
Places connected with this person
History · Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and the Atomic Bomb Dome
Sadako and a thousand paper cranes
Sadako Sasaki was two when the atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima, and ten years later she was diagnosed with leukaemia. In hospital she folded more than a thousand paper cranes; she died in October 1955, aged just 12. The 'Children's Peace Monument' in the park was built in memory of her and all the child victims, and visitors from around the world still offer paper cranes there.
