The 68th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombings and its victim Sadako Sasaki didn’t go unnoticed in the Naipunya School, Kakkanad. Students, teachers and parents of the school chose to pay tribute to them by making garlands with over one lakh origami paper cranes.
Worldwide, the making of origami cranes is associated with the memory of the Hiroshima killings and the life of Sadako Sasaki, a 12-year-old girl who survived the bombing when she was two years old but later died of leukemia. Sadako believed in curing her disease by making 1000 paper cranes, as the Japanese legend goes, but could complete only 644 cranes before her death.
The girl’s poignant story became internationally famous after the publication of Eleanor Coerra’s 1977 book ‘Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes’. A statue of Sadako holding a golden origami crane stands in Hiroshima Peace Park.
The paper cranes were made under the leadership of principal Father Benny Maramparambil, Father Varghese Aalunkal, Mary Sabu and Sajini Paul. Students made the cranes during their craft classes and free time. The PTA committee under the initiative of Reji Jacob, Joseph N J, Bindu Thomas and Neema George also participated in the evenings and over weekends. Gopakumar and Josemon made the garland strings using the cranes.