Orizuru - HISTORY -

Literally translated into English, "Orizuru" means "paper crane" from the Japanese art of folding paper called origami. The _Orizuru_ has become a symbol of peace in part from the legend that says anyone who folds one thousand paper cranes will have their dreams come true and in part because of a young Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki.

Sadako was two years old when the nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Miraculously, she survived but was exposed to significant amounts of radiation. By the time she was twelve in 1955 she was dying of leukemia.

Believing in the power of the _Orizuru_, she wrote a haiku (a Japanese 17 syllable poem)_I shall write peace upon your wings, and you shall fly around the world so that children will no longer have to die this way_ and passionately started to fold 1,000 cranes so that she could live. She folded 644 cranes before she died.

The community folded the remaining 356 cranes and she was buried with a Wreath of 1,000 cranes. To celebrate her strength and humanity, the city of Hiroshima erected a statue of Sadako in Hiroshima Peace Park: a young girl standing with her hands outstretched and a giant paper crane (Orizuru)flying from her fingertips. Every year the statue is adorned with thousands of wreaths of origami cranes.

On July 25, 1945, President Truman noted in his personal diary that he ordered the atomic bomb to be used on Hiroshima. He said he believed he was targeting _military objectives_ and _not women and children_.

Truth and fiction weave such a fine braid in this heart-wrenching story, Director Sakino calls upon the audience to find their own answer to war.