Sadako Sasaki

(http://www.shirari.com/blog/img/peace-love-podcast.gif)

“This is our cry, this is our prayer, peace in the world.”
Peace in the world, many may want it, many may think it’s impossible but it is just a step away if we focus on our goal and dedicate ourselves to it like the young, positive girl Sadako Sasaki. Sadako had hope despite all the odds against her but her courage was not enough to get her through her battle with leukemia and this is her story.

Sadako (http://www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=s_sasaki)

Sadako’s journey begins from when she was two years old. Sadako was affected by an atom bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima during the war. Even though Sadako was far away from the bomb the radiation spread to her town. Sadako survived the immediate bombing but later was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 11. Sadako first felt the effects of the disease when she was running in a race and she got really dizzy. Sadako was admitted to hospital at the age of 11.

While she was in the hospital, Sadako’s best friend Chizuko Hamamoto told her a Japanese legend that say that if you make 1000 paper cranes you get granted one wish by the gods. Chizuko folded a paper crane out of golden paper and said, “Here’s your first one.” During the long months staying in the hospital, after seeing all her friends with the same sickness die, she knew she would too, so she changed her wish. She no longer wished for her own health but that there should be no more wars or bombs, for peace so others would not suffer the same fate as her. One day Sadako’s mother, Fujiko Sasaki, presented her with a beautifully handmade kimono, decorated with cherry blossoms and made out of the finest silk. Several days later, Sadako was allowed to go home as her health was improving. On 25th, October 1955, Sadako Sasaki died surrounded by her loving family. Sadako had only made 644 paper cranes by the time she died, her classmates finished the thousand together and buried them with her.

Peace (http://media.photobucket.com/image/peace)

Jesus suffered physical pain through his life and he knew he was going to die but he still wanted God to forgive the people who were causing him this pain, he wanted to help the world become a better place. Sadako did all this but in her own way, she knew she was going to die, even so, she wished for peace to help the world become a better place.

Sadako's statue (http://www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=s_sasaki)

A monument of Sadako Sasaki holding a paper crane was constructed three years after her death in the Hiroshima Peace Park engraved with the words, “This is our cry, this is our prayer, peace in the world.”
Peace isn’t that hard to find; if we just work hard for it, it will come.