It's an ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury. The crane in Japan is one of the mystical or holy beasts.It may conceivably be the oldest bird on earth, there is fossil proof that they existed over 60 million years ago.
The Japanese refer to the crane as “the bird of happiness” the Chinese as “heavenly crane” believing they were symbols of wisdom.The crane has also evolved as a favorite subject of the tradition of paper folding " origami". It is said that a thousand folded cranes, one for each year of its life, makes a wish come true.
The Thousand Origami Cranes has become a symbol of world peace through the story of Sadako Sasaki a young Hiroshima survivor born just before the atomic bombing she developed leukemia as a result of the radiation ten years later, in her early teens. As the disease wasted her body, this young girl who was a local track star began to fold cranes in the ancient legend that if she folded a thousand cranes she would have a wish granted to be cured and well.
The story began when Chizuko Hamamoto - Sadako's best friend -came to the hospital to visit and cut a golden piece of paper into a square and folded it into a paper crane. At first Sadako didn't understand why Chizuko was doing this but then Chizuko retold the story about the paper cranes. Inspired by the crane, she started folding them herself, spurred on by "the Japanese saying" that one who folded 1,000 cranes was granted a wish. A popular version of the story is that she fell short of her goal of folding 1,000 cranes, having folded only 644 before her death, and that her friends completed the 1,000 and buried them all with her. This comes from the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. An exhibit which appeared in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum stated that by the end of August, 1955, Sadako had achieved her goal and continued to fold more cranes.Though she had plenty of free time during her days in the hospital to fold the cranes, she lacked paper. She would use medicine wrappings and whatever else she could scrounge up. This included going to other patients' rooms to ask to use the paper from their get-well presents. Chizuko would bring paper from school for Sadako to use.
During her time in hospital her condition progressively worsened. Around mid-October her left leg became swollen and turned purple. After her family urged her to eat something, Sadako requested tea on rice and remarked "It's good." Those were her last words. With her family around her, Sadako died on the morning of October 25, 1955.
The children decide to write to other children all over Japan to tell them of the story of Sadako and ask them to contribute money for a monument in her name to spread her message of peace. When the Japanese government learns of this plan they decide to rename a park in Hiroshima "Peace Park." There they erect a huge statue with a replica of Sakako holding up a giant crane.
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