Sadako Statue in Seattle’s Peace Park
Seattle’s Peace Park is a “vest pocket” park near the University of Washington. The centerpiece of the space is a bronze statue of Sadako Sasaki holding an origami crane aloft.
The story of Sadako is that she became ill with leukemia at the age of 12, having survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. While in the hospital, she began folding paper cranes. The Japanese legend is that if you fold a 1000 cranes, you will be granted a wish, such as a long life or the recovery from illness. Unfortunately, Sadako was unable to complete her cranes before passing away in October 1955. The story is that her friends completed the remaining cranes and all 1000 were buried with Sadoko.
The Children’s Peace Monument in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is a statue of Sadako holding a large crane over her head. The Peace Memorial Park is a part of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
The Seattle statue of Sadoko was completed in 1990 by sculptor Daryl Smith. The inscription on the dedication plaque reads:
Sadako Sasaki
Peace Child
She gave us this paper crane
to symbolize our yearning for
peace in the world
A gift to the people of Seattle
From Fratelli’s Ice Cream.
Here is a pseudo-3D view of Sadako’s statue. Click in the white boxes or click or drag the arrows to move around the statue.
This is a panorama view of the Peace Park.
If you would like to visit the Peace Park, on each of these views, click the green leaf spiral in the upper corner and select “more about this synth. On the new page that opens, scroll down to the lower left corner of the page. There is a geotag that shows you the location of the park on an aerial view map.
If you do make the trip, don’t forget to fold a crane and leave it with Sadako. Click the video below to learn how.
