The massive amounts of paper cranes offered to a statue in Hiroshima, modeled after a girl who died of leukemia following the U.S. atomic bombing of the city 80 years ago, have continued to relay the message of peace to future generations.
Every year, about 10 million paper cranes weighing about 10 tons in total are donated by people both in and outside of Japan and displayed at the Children's Peace Monument at the city's Peace Memorial Park.
Over 10 years ago, the Hiroshima city government started a recycling project in which the donated paper cranes are distributed to companies and citizens.
"The desire for peace woven into the paper cranes is reaching numerous people around the world and is passed on to the next generation, and their wishes for the abolition of nuclear weapons and lasting world peace are spreading," a city official said.
The statue commemorates Sadako Sasaki, who, at the age of 2, was exposed to radiation from the U.S. atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, in the closing days of World War II. She died at the age of 12.
As the story of Sasaki folding paper cranes in hospital in hopes of getting better was told through picture books and school textbooks, people started to offer paper cranes to the statue.
The donated paper cranes are stored after being put on display in booths set up at the foot of the statue.
In 2012, the Hiroshima city government launched the recycling project. Since then, a total of over 600 companies and organizations have used paper recycled from the paper cranes to make items such as business cards and notepads.
In addition, the recycled paper is used for lanterns that are floated on the Motoyasu River in front of the city's Atomic Bomb Dome, which survived the nuclear attack, in a ceremony on the night of Aug. 6 every year.
Thousand Crane Project for A Hopeful Future, a local organization, works on recycling the donated paper cranes with 53 welfare facilities for people with disabilities both in and outside the city.
About 670 users of the facilities take apart the paper cranes and send them to factories. Recycled paper is then sent back to the facilities to make badges, notepads, sticky notes and other products.
"Wishes for peace are spreading as (the paper cranes) are transformed into other products by the hands of people with disabilities," said Yukari Kawahigashi, the 34-year-old manager of Smile Studio, one of the 53 facilities. The project is "extremely meaningful," she said.
"I feel that I'm contributing to society by recycling the paper cranes for peace, instead of just working," a woman involved in creating notepads and other products said. "I'm extremely thankful (for the project)."
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