Bereaved relatives of Sadako Sasaki, a girl who died of leukemia after the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, have filed for the registration of her orizuru (paper cranes) and other items under UNESCO's Memory of the World program.
The application was filed with the Japanese National Commission for UNESCO.
Sadako, the model of the Children's Peace Monument in the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, developed leukemia after being exposed to radiation from the U.S. atomic bomb dropped on the city on Aug. 6, 1945, in the closing days of World War II, when she was 2 years old. She started to show symptoms in 1954.
In hopes of recovery, Sadako continued to make orizuru until her death at the age of 12 in October 1955.
"If the registration is made in 2025, which marks 80 years since the atomic bombing, that will send a big message to the world about the orizuru and peace," said Yuji Sasaki, Sadako's 53-year-old nephew.
Other items for which the application was made include Sadako's handwritten notes on her blood test results and her photos.
Aiming to realize the Memory of the World registration, the relatives set up a council with the governments of Hiroshima Prefecture and the city of Hiroshima, and made the application on Monday jointly with a group of hibakusha atomic bomb survivors in Brazil.
The Japanese commission for UNESCO will select candidate items in mid-November and submit an application to the U.N. education, science and culture agency by the end of that month, according to the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
A decision on whether the items will be registered under the Memory of the World program is expected to be made around spring 2025.