Hiroshima and the Peace Crane Project

Today I heard the story behind the colourful paper cranes hanging in the entrance to the Smith museum and Art gallery in Stirling.
 
They commemorate International Peace Day in September, said Brooke Cameron, supervisor, and they proved so popular with visitors they have kept them up.
 
These origami paper cranes represent the crane, a sacred bird, in Japan and legend has it that if a sick person makes a 1,000 cranes they will be saved. 
 
The story was told to a child diagnosed with leukaemia in 1955 from the Hiroshima bombing and she set about making 1,000 cranes. Sadly she died but her spirit lives on and out of it grew the International Peace Crane project. Read more about this remarkable story.