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Paper crane made by Sadako to go to Pearl Harbor

Desire of family becomes reality

by Michiko Tanaka, Staff Writer

A paper crane folded by Sadako Sasaki on her sickbed is to be donated to the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center in the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument in Hawaii and put on permanent display there. Sadako, who died from leukemia at the age of 12, served as the model for the Children’s Peace Monument in Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima.

Sadako Legacy, a Tokyo-based non-profit organization, announced the donation of the paper crane on June 7. Sadako’s brother Masahiro, 70, serves as president of the organization.

The paper crane to be donated is one of five that has been kept by Mr. Sasaki, a resident of Fukuoka Prefecture. The crane, which was made from a caramel wrapper, is about 1 cm long. Sadako folded cranes in hopes of recovering from her leukemia. A ceremony to mark the donation of the crane to the memorial is scheduled to be held at the national monument in September.

Clifton Truman Daniel, 55, grandson of U.S. President Harry Truman, who ordered the atomic bombings, urged the visitor center to accept the crane. Mr. Truman reportedly became acquainted with Mr. Sasaki through a friend and supported his desire to donate the crane to the center.

“I wanted a paper crane made by a girl who died from the atomic bombing to be kept at the site of the attack that triggered the Pacific War,” Mr. Sasaki said. “I hope it will serve as the first step toward the ‘psychological end of the war’ between the U.S. and Japan.”

Mr. Sasaki has also donated one paper crane each to a memorial in New York commemorating the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and to a peace museum in Austria.

(Originally published on June 8, 2012)

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