When I was in fifth grade, the class read a story that went something like this: Japanese culture gets cancer, says if she can fold 1000 paper cranes she can have a wish granted, dies before cranes are finished.
Thanks for that, teach. Now you have a bunch of depressed, what… 11 year olds? The thing is, though, the story stuck with me, and so has the technique for making these cranes. I’m serious. I’ve been folding these bad boys for over ten years. I make them and leave them in random places for people to find. I fold them out of everything- newspaper, computer paper, gum wrappers- I even attempted one with a fabric napkin at a restaurant once, but the fabric was stiff and shaped funny.
In 2011, when Japan was devastated with an earthquake, people all over the world started sending boxes full of these paper cranes. Dosomething.org even began a project, where if 100,000 cranes were received, $200,000.00 would be donated to the relief fund.
I’ve always loved the idea of paper cranes- they’re a symbol of peace and hope, and such a little part of Japanese culture can and did unify people from all around the world.
Learn to make your own crane!
Japanese strongly hold on to the crane tradition. A Japanese friend told me that when a classmate was in the hospital, the kids in class folded thousand cranes. He taught me to fold one too, but I still have 999 to go… Seems like some of your wishes have been granted the last ten years. Nice post!
Thank you so much! It’s really inspirational, I think, that this piece of their culture has spread. Such a simple idea, but so beautiful as well.