Thousand 'Peace Crane' Origami Workshop

Everyone is invited to help make 1,000 paper cranes for the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Remembrance Day, and also learn and make other origami designs.  No experience needed.  Admission is free and supplies will be provided by Sonoma County Japanese American Citizens' League (JACL).

The tradition of making 1,000 cranes has long been inspired by the story of a Japanese girl who died in 1955 of radiation poisoning from the atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima.  Before she died, she folded cranes on her hospital bed as an ancient Japanese story promised that anyone who would fold a thousand origami cranes would be granted a wish by a crane - the symbol for long life and good fortune.  Her families, friends, and other hospital patients joined her and folded thousands of cranes with her.  This story has inspired people around the world and the paper crane has come to symbolize world peace.

Henry Kaku, an origami master, who has been teaching the art of origami at libraries and local events in Sonoma County for many years, will lead the paper crane instruction as well as teach other origami designs at this workshop.

The cranes made at the workshop will be artistically assembled and presented at the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Remembrance Day at the Glaser Center in Santa Rosa, August 6.