80 Years On: Paper Cranes Pass on Message of Peace from Hiroshima

   Hiroshima, Aug. 6 (Jiji Press)--The massive amounts of paper cranes offered to a statue in Hiroshima modeled on a girl who died of leukemia following the U.S. atomic bombing of the western Japan city 80 years ago have continued to relay the message of peace to future generations.
   Every year, about 10 million paper cranes weighing about 10 tons in total are donated from people both in and outside of Japan and displayed at the Children's Peace Monument at the city's Peace Memorial Park.
   Over 10 years ago, the Hiroshima city government started a recycling project in which the donated paper cranes are distributed to companies and citizens.
   "The desire for peace woven into the paper cranes is reaching numerous people around the world and passed onto the next generation, and their wishes for the abolition of nuclear weapons and lasting world peace are spreading," a city official said.
   The statue commemorates Sadako Sasaki, who, at the age of 2, was exposed to radiation from the U.S. atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, in the closing days of World War II. She died at the age of 12.

(2025/08/06-09:30)

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