On the 71st anniversary of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Turkish and Japanese children send messages of peace to the world from the Istanbul Toy Museum...

The Sadako Sasaki remembrance day, held every year at the Istanbul Toy Museum, takes place for the eleventh time this year. Each year the museum combines the Sadako Sasaki remembrance day with a different event, and the children send messages of peace to the world with the paper cranes they make.

At this year’s event on 6 August, Turkish and Japanese children will attach the cranes they make with the art of origami to the tails of kites, so that Sadako Sasaki’s wish may come true, and will symbolically fly them to Japan in memory of Sadako Sasaki. The remembrance day will highlight Turkish–Japanese friendship and will feature the children’s messages about love, brotherhood and world peace.

Event programme:

15:45-16:15 Kite Making with the Flying Tales Kite Story Workshop

16:15-16:30 Making Paper Cranes with the Art of Origami

Instructors: Gökçen Atamgüç, Marion Dupeyrat and İbrahim Yılmaz

About Sadako Sasaki:

Sadako Sasaki, who fell ill and became bedridden at the age of 12 because of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, believed, following a Japanese belief, that if she made 1,000 paper cranes her wish would come true, and she would recover and play with her toys again as before. When Sasaki closed her eyes for the last time, 646 paper cranes that she had made stood at her bedside!..

Every year, in different parts of the world, children fold the colourful cranes that Sadako Sasaki could not complete and send a message of peace to the world. Since its very first year, the Istanbul Toy Museum has held a paper crane event in memory of Sadako Sasaki.