Tale of the Cranes

During my stop at Bangsar Village earlier, I found out a bit more about the paper cranes I have been fretting about recently. It was in memory of a celebrated girl, Sadako Sasaki, who died 10 years after the Hiroshima atom bomb, due to the effect of radiation. She died of leukemia. Before she died, she hoped to make 1000 origami paper cranes, motivated by an ancient belief that it would grant her her wish.

Her wish was to live, but unfortunately, at the time she died, she was a few hundred short, and her friends came along to help out and she was buried with the thousand cranes that she wished for. The problem then was not lack of time, but lack of papers.

The desk for origamiSo, in memory of the recent Japan tsunami victims, a charity drive was launched. Along with the paper cranes, came monetary donation. By May, visitors to Bangsar Village managed to origami - is that a verb? - together more than 6000 paper cranes, and donated over RM90,000 for the fund. The cranes were on display all around the shopping center, both, Bangsar Village and Village II, suspended from the ceiling on pieces of string.

An interesting read, and the story was told in a book, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Crane written by Eleanor Coerr. That being written in 1977 meant that no audiobook version were available for me to listen to. I would fancy a copy though. Maybe I'd be lucky at Kinokuniya.

Paper Origami Birds

I have been puzzled by this sudden invasion of birds in Bangsar Village II. I was assured that it had nothing to do with Ramadhan. They were everywhere, mainly by the staircases, hanging down from the ceiling. It blended well with their signature boxy lanterns that they had over there for many years.

They hang down from the topThey were not live birds though - I didn't think they would be able to cope with the droppings! They were paper origami birds. All appeared to be hand-made. A nice touch I thought!

Update on Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 10:13AM by Haris Abdul Rahman

This true story is of a girl, Sadako Sasaki, who lived in Hiroshima at the time of the atomic bombing by the United States. She developed leukemia from the radiation and spent her time in a nursing home creating origami (folded paper) cranes in hope of making a thousand of them. She was inspired to do so by the Japanese saying that one who created a thousand origami cranes would then be granted a wish. Her wish was simply to live. However, she managed to fold only 644 cranes before she became too weak to fold any more, and died shortly after. Her friends and family helped finish her dream by folding the rest of the cranes, which were buried with Sadako. They also built a statue of Sadako holding a giant golden origami crane in Hiroshima Peace Park.

The bomb was dropped over Hiroshima on 6th August 1945. She was 12 when she died, 10 years after the bomb was dropped.