Sadako Sasaki.

In 1954, Sadako Sasaki was eleven, a bright young girl, and a good athlete. She wanted to be the best runner in her school, and to represent the junior high school. One day after a race, Sadako felt ill and dizzy, and she tried to convince herself that it was nothing, that the dizziness would go away. It did not, and only got worse. Sadako was frightened and kept her illness secret within her, not even telling her best friend Chizuko. On New Year's Eve that year, Sadako hoped that somehow the dizzy spells would just disappear, and as the temple bells rang in the New Year, Sadako made her special wish with each chime.
For a while in early 1955, Sadako seemed better, and she began to think that her special wish was coming true. One day at the end of February that year, Sadako collapsed in the school yard. Her parents were informed and Mr and Mrs Sasaki took Sadako to the hospital. It was quickly discovered that Sadako was suffering from leukaemia, the "A-bomb disease." Sadako's first visitor the next afternoon was Chizuko, her best friend. Chizuko had remembered an old story that if a sick person folded 1000 paper cranes, then the god's would look kindly and restore the person to health. Chizuko handed Sadako a golden crane as a good luck charm. Sadako began to make her 1000 cranes.

Sadako Sasaki died on October 25th 1955, having made 644 paper cranes. Her classmates folded a further 356, and Sadako was buried along with 1000 paper cranes.

After the funeral Sadako's friends gathered together her letters and published them in a book. This was sent around Japan and soon the whole country knew of Sadako and her 1000 paper cranes.
Sadako's friends dreamt of a monument to her, and all the children who had been killed by the atom bomb. In 1958, their dream came true when the Children's Memorial was unveiled. On the top of the Memorial is Sadako, holding her golden crane in outstretched hands. On August 6th each year, "Peace Day", the anniversary of the A-bombing of Hiroshima, thousands of paper cranes are placed at the Memorial.
Engraved on the base of the statue are the following words -

	This is our cry,
	this is our prayer,
	peace in the world.