A Thousand Cranes There is a legend that says that any person who folds 1,000 paper cranes will be granted a wish. When Sadako Sasaki was just 2 years old, her mother held her in her arms and sang a lullaby as her grandmother was making tea. Suddenly, a flash of light cut across the sky. Ten years later in 1955, when Sadako was a happy 12-year-old school girl in Hiroshima, radiation sickness came. Sadako began to fold cranes, wishing to be well again, and wishing that an atom bomb like the one that took her grandmother would never be dropped again. Before her death, Sadako folded 644 cranes. Her friends and classmates folded 356 more to make 1,000. Three years later, in Hiroshima Peace Park, a statue was unveiled of Sadako holding a golden crane in her outstretched arms and the 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 Sadako’s monument. The play tells the inspiring true story of Sadako and of how her spirit of hope and strength continues to touch young people the world over to work for peace.