One of the people affected by the great destruction and harm caused by the atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in the Second World War was Sadako Sasaki. Sadako fell ill at the age of 12 and began to make paper cranes so that she could get well again, because, according to a Japanese belief, if she completed 1000 cranes her wish would come true. When she died, she had 664 cranes.

Every year since we were founded, we at the Istanbul Toy Museum, together with the Consulate General of Japan, have completed Sadako Sasaki’s cranes on 6 August using origami, the traditional Japanese art of paper folding, and in this way we express our hope for world peace.

This year, because of the global pandemic, we will hold our peace event in memory of Sadako Sasaki from our homes. Let us all complete together the cranes that Sadako Sasaki could not finish, the symbol of world peace and nuclear disarmament, and hang them in our windows, on our balconies and on the branches of the trees in our gardens; the wind will carry the song of peace they sing to Hiroshima!

All you need for this is paper…

You can join the event, which will take place with the participation of museums in Türkiye and abroad, together with your children by watching the video narrated by instructor Gökçen Atamgüç on our museums’ social media accounts. Do not forget to share photos of the cranes you make on Instagram with the hashtag below, tagging our museums. May our birds with peace written on their wings travel the whole world!..

#SadakoSasaki

“The paper birds made with the hope of peace will all take flight together in the sky of our hope.” — Sunay Akın, Founder, Istanbul Toy Museum