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.