Since its very first year, the Istanbul Toy Museum has held events every year to remember Sadako Sasaki on the anniversary of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in the Second World War. Since 2021, it has continued these events in partnership with the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) Department of Parks, Gardens and Green Spaces. The annual remembrance programme aims to express the hope of peace for the whole world.
Sadako Sasaki Remembrance Day, organised in cooperation between the İBB Department of Parks, Gardens and Green Spaces and the Istanbul Toy Museum, will take place on 6 August 2022 in Göztepe 60. Yıl Park.
Sadako Sasaki was one of the people affected by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. She was not injured on that day, but she was exposed to the radiation spread by the bomb and fell ill ten years later. After she heard the story of the 1,000 paper cranes from friends who came to visit her, Sadako began to fold origami cranes in her hospital bed so that she would get better. According to a Japanese belief, the wish of a person who folds 1,000 paper cranes comes true. While she made her cranes, Sadako Sasaki dreamed of getting well again and playing with her friends, but she could not finish the cranes. For this reason, at our remembrance event, with the participation of the Japanese Consulate and of Japanese and Turkish children, we will make cranes in memory of Sadako Sasaki in our origami crane workshop.
The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima caused not only harm to living beings but also the destruction and poisoning of nature. Practices that do not care about human life and the environment continue to threaten our health and nature today. Many news stories about harm to humanity and to all living things in nature fall onto the agenda like atomic bombs. Felled trees, poisoned soil, drought, polluted water, the climate crisis and many other environmental problems threaten our future. For this reason, we will make seed balls together for our future in the Seed Ball Making Workshop, and we will protect nature by planting seeds in the Seed Planting Workshop. We are meeting our children with the motto “Make Origami for Peace, Plant a Seed for Your Future”, so that all living things in the world can live in harmony. As we symbolically send the origami cranes shaped by small hands up into the sky for peace, we give life to the soil with seed balls for our future...
The Origami Crane Workshop, the Green Istanbul Seed Planting Workshop and the Seed Ball Making Workshop will take place from 16.00 to 18.00. The event is for children aged 5–9 and places are limited. Registration is required to take part.