Anyone who has read Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr will associate the beautiful Japanese origami paper crane with good fortune and longevity; and withSadako Sasaki, who survived the bombing of Hiroshima, but died on October 25, 1955 of radiation induced leukemia. There is a Japanese tradition that promised one wish to anyone who folded 1000 origami paper cranes. Sadako set out to do just that, but despite folding more than 1,300 paper cranes and wishing for life. The bomb's impact took her life in 1955.
In 1977 Eleanor Coerr told her story and that story lives on decades later inspiring others to wish for peace, hope, good fortune and a long life.
After long being a symbol for hope and peace - cranes are now taking on an expanded role - that of a wish for hope and peace and support for solidarity among all groups of people.
Paper cranes have become a symbol for those wishes to be passed on to others. In 1915, Hilary Parkinson wrote an article detailing how one of the last paper cranes folded by Sadako (folded from a cellophane wrapper) was donated to the Harry S. Truman Presidential library. The crane was donated by Sadako's brother Masahiro Sasaki. The article is published on the National Archives site. Masahiro Sasaki donated the last five of Sadako's cranes as a gesture of peace and healing. An account of Masahiro Sasaki's mission is told in the Japan Times News by Masamito.
Few Iowa families were untouched by the war. Most families had sent someone off to war or were at home supporting the warm efforts though work in factories. And there were prisoners that were housed in Iowa. Iowa Pathways recounted information about the prisoners that were incarcerated in Iowa - some German, some Italian, and later some Japanese.
Those who read and enjoyed Sadako and the Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr might enjoy reading the memoir of Masahiro Sasaki, who wrote The Complete Story of Sadako Sasaki: And the Thousand Paper Cranes, by Masahiro Sasaku and Sue DiCicco (Tuttle, 2020)
Over the years paper cranes have symbolized much - today in 2020 in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, paper cranes are being used to show solidarity with the protests. Kudos to these Japanese Americans who are coming together to support other repressed minorities. Their efforts recognize the mass incarceration and police brutality towards Black and Brown people, while recognizing the history of the Japanese American's experience with mass incarceration during World War II (Nagasawa, 2020).
When the atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, and a few days later on Nagasaki, the war came to a halt. Iowa's soldiers came home, prisoners of war left Iowa, Japanese-Americans were eventually allowed to leave the internment camps to go back home to what was left of their lives (much had been lost). And people of Japan were left to rebuild.
It was during those next ten years that Sadako's family would struggle to survive. When Sadako became ill, her family had no funds for her medicine. Eventually she was in the hospital and it was there that she began to fold the paper cranes. That is the beginning of the story about the paper cranes -- but in Georgia and in Iowa, and across our nation, Sadako and her paper cranes are still making us think about hope and peace, and friendship.
Recently my friend Tony Pope, a respected, enthusiastic librarian from Georgia set out to fold his own set of paper cranes. Tony is retired now but I can't say ex-librarian or retired librarian, as no librarian ever stops being a librarian inspiring others to love books, research (he is the family genealogist it seems), maintain an interest in the Cherokee Nation, and above all else be a book lover at heart. His cranes seem filled with joy and hope.
Well into the hundreds - Tony's cranes are creating a colorful tribute to Sadako and to peace and good fortune (and friendship). One by one his cranes take flight to friends, carrying messages of inspiration. These came to Iowa -#82 Be a giver, #83 Be Calm, #84 Stand Tall, #85 Be creative, #86 Bloom.
All of us should be so lucky to have such people in our lives. These cranes that flew from Georgia to Iowa are destined to become part of a mobile much like those featured at the Iowa City Public Library, the University of Iowa's Belin-Blank Honors Center or at churches in Ames, Iowa and Urbandale, Iowa.Thanks Tony, such friends don't grow on every bush.
Articles for more information about the events and so forth mentioned above:
Belinblank (admin). (2013, April 3). Cranes have landed at the center! Belin Blank. Retrieved from https://belinblank.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/cranes-have-landed-at-the-center/
Horton, Loren. (n.d.) World War II prisoners of war in Iowa. Iowa PBS: Iowa Pathways. Retrieved from http://www.iowapbs.org/iowapathways/mypath/world-war-ii-prisoners-war-iowa
Hurley, Kathleen. (2015, April 9). Folded cranes fill Urbandale church. Des Moines Register. Retrieved from https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/community/2015/04/10/covenant-christian-church-urbandale/25503101/
Iowa Conference: United Methodist Church. (2015, February 5). Paper cranes at Ames First UMC symbols of 'God's love and peace'. Retrieved from https://www.iaumc.org/newsdetail/780945.
Jennifer F. (2007. January 2007). How to fold an origami paper crane (Orizuru). Metacafe. Retrieved from https://www.metacafe.com/watch/387698/how_to_fold_an_origami_paper_crane_orizuru/.
Masamiito. (2012, August 24). Masahiro Sasaki: Donating one of last paper cranes to Pearl Harbor memorial: Brother keeps Sadako memory alive. The Japan Times. Retrieved from https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2012/08/24/national/brother-keeps-sadako-memory-alive/#.XuvVn2pKhBw
Nagasawa, Katherine. (2020, June 8). Japanese Americans use thousands of paper cranes to show solidarity with protests. National Public Radio (NPR): WBEZ Chicago. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/local/309/2020/06/08/872238547/japanese-americans-use-thousands-of-paper-cranes-to-show-solidarity-with-protests.
Parkinson, Hilary. (2015, November 23). Flight of a Sadako Crane: World War II, News and Events, Unusual Documents. National Archives. Retrieved from https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2015/11/23/flight-of-a-sadako-crane/
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr (illustrations by Ronald Himler) -originally published in 1977, Putnam.
Cite this post as:
McElmeel, Sharron. (2020, June 18). Paper cranes taking flight in Iowa (and beyond). Iowa History: Bits and Pieces (blog). Retrieved from https://bit.ly/papercranes-Iowa
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