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Courtesy of Sadako Legacy The paper crane presented to former U.S. President Barack Obama
The Yomiuri Shimbun
2:00 JST, March 16, 2025
A nonprofit organization run by relatives of Sadako Sasaki, the model for the Children’s Peace Monument in the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima City, said a paper crane believed to have been folded by the girl was found in December and presented to former U.S. President Barack Obama in Hawaii.
Members of the Tokyo-based group, Sadako Legacy, made the announcement.
Sadako was exposed to atomic bombing radiation in Hiroshima when she was 2 years old and later developed leukemia. She continued to fold paper cranes in her sickbed and died at the age of 12. The remaining paper cranes were placed in Sadako’s coffin, given to her friends and donated to facilities in Japan and abroad that promote peace.
Her brother, Masahiro Sasaki, 83, of Nakagawa City, Fukuoka Prefecture, found the paper crane at his home among the items their father had left. It is folded from a piece of lined notebook paper, and measures three centimeters high and six centimeters long. The paper crane, which had apparently deteriorated over time, had a hole to put a thread through to hang it up as one of a thousand paper cranes.
Courtesy of Sadako Legacy Former U.S. President Barack Obama, right, receives the paper crane believed to have been folded by Sadako Sasaki from her nephew, Yuji Sasaki.
Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for his campaign for a world without nuclear weapons. He became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima in 2016, which is when he saw Sadako’s paper cranes at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Sadako’s nephew, Yuji Sasaki, 54, of Tokyo, had been in contact with Obama, making the donation possible.
When Obama received the paper crane from Yuji at his vacation home on Feb. 26, he expressed his gratitude and reportedly asked Yuji to let him know if there is anything they can do together in Hiroshima for peace through paper cranes.
“I feel it was miraculous that I was able to hand a paper crane that was found after many years to Mr. Obama, in this year that marks the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing,” Yuji said. “I hope the paper crane will be used to appeal for peace throughout the world.”
