Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Slew of paper cranes on way to New York, Washington

Marketplace \| Services \| Contact Us \| Community \| Arts & Entertainment \| Local Guides

Published by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. CLICK FOR NEWSPAPER DELIVERY

Sunday, November 4, 2001
Slew of paper cranes on way to New York, Washington
Tradition of folding origami birds, symbols of peace and good thoughts, was started by a young victim of Hiroshima
By Karen Gaudette
Associated Press
   SAN FRANCISCO - Well-wishers across the nation have folded thousands of brightly colored peace cranes as a gift to the people of New York and Washington.
   For many, the origami birds have helped them express their hopes and sorrows in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
   "It's just the feeling that I'm putting my heart and my spirit into the crane itself," explains Naomi Nakano-Matsumoto of San Jose. "Each one that I fold is a wish for peace or hope or good thoughts for this country and for the people who have suffered."
   Nakano-Matsumoto has devoted her spare time during the past few weeks to stringing together as many as 15,000 cranes being sent to her temple in Mountain View from other Buddhist temples in California, Colorado, Utah and Washington state.
   Her temple has arranged with U.S. Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, to take the clusters to Washington, where he plans to present them to the New York and Virginia delegations.
   Cranes and their meanings
   The story of Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who died of leukemia after the bombing of Hiroshima during WWII and folded paper cranes while she was ailing, helped inspire the tradition of folding cranes as a wish for peace.
   Statues of Sadako in Japan and in Seattle often are draped in strands of cranes. More recently, cranes were folded in mourning of the Oklahoma City bombing.
   Cranes, tall white and black birds with long necks, legs and beaks, convey many meanings in Japanese and Chinese culture.
   A paper crane's crisp creases wish good health to someone who is ill and celebrate long life at birthdays. They also are folded by friends and family for weddings because it is believed that cranes mate for life.
   The richly hued paper birds are painstakingly arranged into elaborate displays that often are framed and kept in homes for a lifetime.
   Making sense of attacks
   But it was Sadako's story that drew Sarah Nixon and her family to the idea of folding cranes to express their hopes.
   While teaching others how to fold cranes in her community, the Medfield, Mass., mother of three came across the Web site of the Seattle-based World Peace Project for Children. After the organization posted her request for cranes on the Internet, thousands poured in from Ohio, North Carolina, Minnesota - even Puerto Rico and New Zealand.
   "I think there were so many people like myself and my family that were searching for some way to make sense of this and some way to think deeper about it in a nonviolent way," she said.
   Nixon has three three large duffel bags packed with 5,000 cranes each that the New York Public Library plans to display in the children's rooms of 82 of its branches.
   "They are all shapes and sizes and colors. Some of them made out of Tootsie Pop wrappers, anything that's square, and it represents so much of what I think the United States is about - all shapes and sizes and colors coming together," Nixon said.

| Talk about this story | Next Story | Home |

[ Printer-friendly version ]
[ Subscribe to newspaper ]

SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND