In 1955 a twelve-year olf girl died of leukemia which she contracted after the U.S. dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. During her illness, Sadako Sasaki was visited by her best friend Chizuko, who reminded her of the old Japanese story that the crane lives for a thousand years, and that the person who folds 1,000 paper cranes will have a wish granted.

Chizuko folded a gold crane and gave it to Sadako as a gift of hope for her friend. Sadako began folding paper cranes out of her medicine wrappers, as she prayed to recover from her fatal disease.

Sadako managed to fold 644 cranes befor she died. In honor of her memory, Sadako's classmates folded 356 more cranes so that she could be buried with one thousand paper cranes. Money was collected from all over Japan to erect a monument to Sadako in "Hiroshima's Peace Park."

The inscription on the base of the monument reads:

All my earrings are handmade from select materials and make wonderful gifts !

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