CNN

By Wayne Drash, CNN

This holiday season, CNN highlights inspiring acts of kindness and generosity in a special series called “Giving in Focus: The 12 Days of Goodness.”

(CNN) — When Sadako Sasaki lay in her hospital bed sick with leukemia, she showed her father origami cranes from local school girls. “When you fold 1,000 paper cranes, you will get well,” her dad responded.

Sadako was just 12. Hoping to get better, she began folding tiny origami cranes, using paper from get-well gifts and wrappers from medicine. She had survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Yet 10 years later, her fragile body suffered the effects of exposure to radiation.

“Please treasure the life that is given to you,” Sadako said before her death on October 25, 1955. “It is my belief that my small paper crane will enable you to understand other people’s feelings, as if they are your own.”

Sadako’s death inspired a memorial in Japan’s Hiroshima Peace Park, complete with a statue of her holding a golden crane. Now, one of her last origami cranes resides in a new memorial thousands of miles away, in the country that dropped the bomb.

It was given to the Tribute WTC Visitor Center in New York by her aging brother.

“I thought if Sadako’s crane is placed at Ground Zero, it will be very meaningful,” says Masahiro Sasaki, in an education program produced by the tribute center and the Japan Society. “Commonly, in Japan, the crane is regarded as a symbol of peace. But for us, in the Sasaki family, it is the embodiment of Sadako’s life, and it is filled with her wish and hope.”

“I hope by talking about that small wish for peace, the small ripple will become bigger and bigger.”

The delicate red crane, smaller than a fingernail, is on display at the center. Hanging near it are origami cranes that were placed on the fence around Ground Zero after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Another 10,000 cranes from families and colleagues of Japanese victims of 9/11 surround Sadako’s…

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/12/17/origami.gift/index.html?iref=storysearch

10/23/2008
New York

Three Hibakusha (survivors of the atomic bombings), Mr. Yoshida, Mr. Morita, and Ms. Nakamura visited New York and appealed for abolishing nuclear weapons at United Nations on October 27th.

On October 23rd, Nagasaki Batten Kai and Hiroshima Kai held a welcome party for them and KFTF Chairman, Todd Yamamoto joined the party.

Yamamoto and Hibakusha agreed to join their force together in order to achieve the ultimate goal – the world with no nuclear weapon.

August 3rd – 5th,

Kumiko Yokoi (Singer and Songwriter) visited New York and had mini peace concerts in The New York Buddhist Church on August 3rd.

On Tuesday, August 5th, in The Japanese American Association of New York, Kids for the Future organized small symposium with Kumiko Yokoi and Kunio Iizuka, an acclaimed Japanese artist. KFTF chairman, Todd Yamamoto spoke out the first time in the public about the next project: construction of Peace Memorial Museum in New York. He said, “Without Japanese people’s support, it can be hardly achieved, so please help us when the time comes.” She and Mr. Iizuka felt the same way and agreed to do their parts.

After the symposium, she took a part in Universal Peace Day, which is for commemorating the 63rd anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Photos by Yuko Sasaki

Kids for the Future (”KFTF”) was a participant in NECTJ’s (The Northeast Council of Teachers of Japanese) annual Japanese Spring Festival, called “Haru Matsuri,” which is principally held at the United Nations International School. In this year, we demonstrated how to fold peace cranes, and explained the meanings of one-thousand-folded cranes to the students. This activity was inspired by “On A Paper Crane – Tomoko’s Adventure,” produced by Mushi Production in 1995 (English ver.).

[Synopsis of the Movie]
Tomoko is a young school girl living in Hiroshima. One day during her summer vacation, she visits the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum alone. It was for a project called “My Adventure” as part of her homework. The unbelievable facts about atomic bombing of Hiroshima overwhelms Tomoko. Shocked and exhausted, she strolls to the Peace Memorial Park and there she meets a mysterious girl. The girl’s name is Saddako. She was exposed to radiation at the age of 2 and died when she was 10. Sadako guides Tomoko to a strange tour.

Photos by Yuko Sasaki

March 11, 2008
New York

At the Nippon Club, a lecture by KFTF Chairman Todd Yamamoto and a trailer of the film Angelus Bell preceded a screening of the10 Feet Films’ The Lost Generation.

Chairman Todd Yamamoto stressed the necessity of upholding the ideals of peace and cooperation within one’s own community to executive-level participants from various fields, and asked for the same support from Kids for the Future, his own organization.