Sadako/Paper Crane Project '96

Dear Teachers and Media Specialists,

If you are teaching about Japan, Sadako, international understanding or the horrors of nuclear war, we have the project for you! This is a relevant and exciting project for your students because it connects them in a real way to the children of Japan who are, also, thinking about the horrors of nuclear war and dreaming of ways to build friendship and international understanding so that no one else, ever again, has to go through what the residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki endured.

Some of you may have followed the story of the '95 Sadako/Paper-Crane Project. The project succeeded beyond my wildest imaginings! We invited teachers through the Internet to help us send a loving greeting to the Japanese people in Hiroshima on August 6, 1995, the day that city celebrated 50 years of peace. Students in 41 states and the province of Alberta read the story of Sadako and folded over 20,000 paper cranes. They sent me pictures, signatures, messages, and haikus, along with the paper cranes.

Due to some wonderful organizations (People-to-People, Int'l, DHL Worldwide Express, Northwest Airlines, Japan Airlines, Shin-ei-ken, the Japan Paper Crane Society, and the Central NY Media Specialists, my parents' group) and people (Masako Furuii, Tamai Motohiro, Ryoju & Akiko Tokai, Hiroko Komine, Susan Parker, Dr. Gregory Winn, CEO of People-to-People) and many others, two of us involved in the project were able to take all of the cranes to the Sadako Children's Peace Memorial and speak to the hundreds of children and adults gathered there. We had made a large notebook of the pictures, messages and signatures which we presented Mr. Tamai at the ceremony.

The children at the ceremony loved it. ABC covered the story on "Good Morning, America" on Peace Day, and many people in each country involved have become more aware of the genuine desire for peace and international understanding in other countries through the project.

The project took enormous amounts of time, and energy and a fair mount of money. This year, we have tried to keep the essence of the project yet simplify it to make it more manageable.

If you would like to participate, the requirements follow:

Two student requirements:

  1. Read the story of Sadako.
  2. Fold one paper crane and send a prayer for peace.

Teacher requirements:

  1. String all but one of your cranes and
  2. (by JUNE 1st) Send me one paper crane with the name of your school and city written on it--made with paper no larger than 6" x 6."
  3. (by JUNE 1st) OPTIONAL Create one or two (maximum four sides) plastic-covered pages to add to the notebook we will give a school in Hiroshima. And send it to me. It may include any or all of the following:
  4. Fill out the form below and send it to me with your crane and plastic-covered page(s).

Note: If you include pictures, note on the back whether or not they may be used in newspaper articles. You might consider getting parental releases if you'd like the pictures to be used in publicity. (Just keep the releases on file.) No problem if you'd prefer not to have the pictures publicized.

I'll have a friend translate the messages and put all the pages I receive into a notebook. I'll make a lei out of the one paper crane per school and send it with the notebook to a principal in Hiroshima. (It might be that we'll find a teacher who is planning to be in Hiroshima on Peace Day who might be able to present the booklet and lei at the Sadako Statue.)

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**Last year, we became aware of a number of wonderful resources to use when teaching a unit on Sadako--most sent to me by teachers. I'll be glad to send you a copy of this list if you'll send me an email requesting it or you can get it here.

**Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope if you'd like a report of the project and expect not to be using email in August.

I'll send a progress report if time allows, but will definitely send a final report in August. I'm sure I'll be able to find a WWW page to, also, post a picture if we're able to present the booklet and lei at the ceremony.

Pages with links to this one

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[Logo] Cranes for Peace Page

©1996, Sharon O'Connell, all rights reserved. Text by Sharon O'Connell, HTML by

Last update: October 20, 1996. Document created on March 28, 1996.