Sadako Sasaki

Sadako Sasaki

Towords the end of World War II, the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. One girl named Sadako Sasaki was at her home when the bomb hit, only one mile from Ground Zero. At the time Sadako was only two years old when the atomic bomb hit on August 6, 1945. She lived at her home with her family in Misasi Bridge, Hiroshima, Japan. She was born on January 7, 1943. Sadako was very nice to everyone she met, and stayed that way until she died on October 25, 1955.

On November of 1954, she developed chicken pox on her neck and behind her ears. Then in January of 1955 she started to develop purple spots on her legs, and then was diagnosed with leukemia. Her mother had called leukemia “an atom bomb disease.” On February 21, 1955 she was hospitalized. The doctors gave her, a year to live at most. Her best friend Chizuko Hamamoto came to visit Sadako on August 3, 1955. Chizuko was so happy to see Sadako but was also worried about her friend at the same time. Chizuko was talking to Sadako and told her about a story that said if you fold 1,000 paper cranes, you will be granted one wish. Sadako was inspired and thankful that there was something that might help her survive. Sadako started right away on the cranes. Even though Sadako had a lot of free time to do anything she wanted, she did not have enough paper to fold, so she would use whatever was available. Sadako was so determined that she would go to other patients' rooms and ask if they had any paper that they did not need. She even used the medicine wrappings. Chizuko even brought paper from her school. As the days passed by, Sadako got worse and worse. One day in mid-October her leg became so swollen, it turned purple. On her last day she told her mom that she wanted some tea over rice. Her last words were “It’s good,” after she ate the tea over rice. With her family around her bed she fell asleep and passed away in her sleep on the morning of October 25, 1955 at the age of 12. She only reached 644 paper cranes before she died.

Statue of Sadako at Memorial holding a crane (Google Images)

Sadako was very inspirational during her last days. She stayed positive, happy, and believed that she could win the battle against her leukemia. She kept other patients in the hospital strong and confident in themselves to keep going and be happy. In one of the books about her it said that she met a boy at the hospital that was fighting the leukemia just like her and he soon became friends with her. He died before her and he told Sadako that she still had a chance to survive if she kept making the paper crane folding. Sadako was inspirational and loving and she made a huge difference.

After Sadako died, her friends and family all pitched in and finished folding the rest of the 1,000 paper cranes and buried it with Sadako in her grave. Then after that, her friends and classmates published a collection of letters, to raise money for a memorial for Sadako and for anyone who died from the radiation from the atomic bomb just like Sadako. In 1958, a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane was revealed in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, also called the Genbaku Dome.

Sadako is my hero because she was faithful and kind and just an all around good person. She had a lot of things to live for and she did not deserve to die from the atomic bomb. I believe that she did not have a full life that would have been a good life. She is also my hero because she did not give up or stop trying on anything, because she believed that she could win the fight against her leukemia. And also, she was a strong willed person, a fighter, and a believer!