- Introduction
- About this Site
- Germany's History
- Hitler Comes to Power
- The Holocaust
- Nazi Death Camps
- Anne Frank
- Anne's Diary
- Hiroshima
- Sadako's 1000 Cranes
- Sadako Lives On!
- Singapore
- Lim Bo Seng
- Mrs Kathigasu
- Comfort Women
- Comfort Women: 01
- Comfort Women: 02
- Aftermath
- Epilogue
- Sign Guestbook
- View Guestbook
Sadako's Last Moments
Sadako gazed out of the window at the maple trees swaying in the warm autumn breeze. Her thoughts drifted like the leaves in the wind. She sank down in her hospital bed and closed her eyes. Just less than a year ago she had been a healthy, fun-loving, eleven-year-old child.
Sadako remembered what a fast runner she had once been. She used to spend every spare moment building up her strength and speed for every important races. One day in late autumn, when Sadako was training after school, she suddenly felt very dizzy. Sadako had to stop and take deep breaths. In the following weeks, the same feeling returned again and again. Although Sadako felt strong and fit, the dizzy spells frightened her. She told no one about them.
One crisp, cold February day, Sadako was running in the school yard with her classmates. Suddenly, a frightening sensation in Sadako's head ended the fun. She stopped and breathed deeply, but she could not stop the world from spinning around. Her legs felt week, and she fell to the ground.
Sadako opened her eyes and looked around the hospital room. "I've been here ever since then," she thought to herself. For eight months, Sadako had been in the hospital with leukemia. As the months passed, her bones ached, and she grew weaker and weaker. The doctor gave her shots, but nothing helped make Sadako better.
A gust of warm wind blew in through the window. Above Sadako, six hundred paper cranes fluttered in the breeze. Hanging frm the ceiling, they looked as if they were flying joyously in a colourful flock above her head. The cranes were of all sizes and colours. Sadako had folded every one of them herself from squares of paper in the ancient Japanese art of origami. Everyone who visited her brought a special piece of paper for her to fold into another crane.
The cranes were Sadako's good luck charms. According to an old Japanese legend, the gods would grant the wishes of any person who folded a thousand paper cranes because it was belived that cranes lived for a thousand years. With every crane she folded, Sadako wished that she would live to be an old, old woman. She also wished for peace in the world. She only need to fold four hundred more paper cranes to have her wishes granted!
Sadako made only forty-four more cranes. She folded her last one in October 1955.