A group from All Saints CE Primary School in Leek- Wotton, Warwickshire visited Coventry Cathedral in autumn 2012. They children were particularly interested in the origami cranes hanging in the Chapel of Unity. They were so inspired by the story when they returned home they got the whole school involved in making paper cranes. When they had finished they had made 1064. After completing the cranes they wanted them to be taken to Sadako Memorial in the Children’s Peace Garden in Hiroshima.
The teacher said: “The children learned a huge amount from visiting Coventry Cathedral […] The theme of our visit was to search for meaning in the signs and symbols of the cathedral. We bought a copy of the book ‘ Sadako’s Cranes for Peace’ ,that was for sale in the chapel. The children now know the story of Sadako and her cranes and the symbolism of the Hiroshima Peace Garden”
In the 1950’s the young girl, Sadako Sasaki, from Hiroshima developed Leukaemia as a result from the nuclear bombing in 1945. An old Japanese legend tells when you create 1000 of Origami paper cranes you have a wish free from the Gods.
Sadako started to make paper cranes out of every possible piece of paper to wish recovery from her disease. Later on after realizing she could not be healed her wish changed to peace for our world. Sadako died in 1955.
After visiting Coventry Cathedral, the children were to be found making origami cranes in class at every available moment. There are only 20 children in the class so soon they decided to start a Crane Club and the younger children in the school to make the cranes. Finally they had 1064 cranes and were looking for somebody who could bring the crane chains personally to the Sadako memorial in Hiroshima. The pupils wrote their own messages for peace and included photographs from their project. They also learned about the impacts of nuclear bombing on japan in 1945 and read different books about this topic.
Now a visitor from Hiroshima who will come to Coventry will take the paper cranes on her return journey to Japan.
