Origami Folding

Jo Wharton has dedicated much of her life to honoring Saadko Sasaki. Sadako was a young Japanese girl that died from the effects of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima Jaapn on August 6th 1945.

Before Sadako died, she believed in the ancient Japanese legend that said those who fold a thosuand cranes will have a long lief. Sadako died on October 25th 1955 before she could fold a thousand cranes. Young people of Japan and indeed people all over the world, generation after generation have taken up Sadako’s belief that origami Peace cranes can bring Peace to all the World.

Everywhere, there are cranes. Hundreds of the folded origami paper birds are massed on strings in patients’ rooms at Hiroshima’s Atomic Bomb Hospital, tokens of good luck for people who are sick and dying. Fifteen years after the bomb, increasing numbers of people are suffering from leukemia, or cancer of the blood. As CBC reporter Michael Maclear tours the hospital, he learns that between 40 and 50 peopel are still dying each year of complications from the atomic bomb.
Broadcast Date: July 31, 1960