A thousand cranes for peace

Here are some of the thousand origami cranes made by a friend of J's where we went for a lunch to raise money for a food bank. The cranes vary in size and include the very small white ones at the back which look a bit like leaves on conifer branches. 

The story behind the thousand cranes is that a girl named Sadako Sasaki developed leukaemia ten years after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. There is a Japanese legend that you will be granted a wish if you make a thousand cranes and that is what Sadako set out to do. It's difficult to know exactly what happened as a novel was written based on her story and some of the facts were changed in that book. However, what is certain is that a monument was erected in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park of her holding a crane. At the foot of the statue is a plaque that reads: "This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world."