Once the Timmins Public Library opens again – maybe in the next couple of weeks – you’ll be able to see its tribute to this week’s 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
Reference librarian Karina Douglas-Takayesu has made 1,000 origami cranes. They’ve been strung together in the Japanese tradition that says you get a wish, usually for good health.
This goes back to the story of Sadako Sasaki, who was two when the attacks happened.
At age eleven, while being treated for leukemia likely caused by radiation, Takayesu says Sadako made a thousand cranes, hoping to return to school and athletics.
“Sadly, she succumbed to the leukemia in 1955,” she relates. “And her legacy, the story about the 1,000 paper cranes continues on and at the Hiroshima Memorial Park, there’s a statue of her holding a crane.”
Douglas-Takayesu spent three months making her own cranes.
“We’re going to be putting them in the display case in the lobby, and it’s going to be spanning across all four cases and it’s going to be sort of tying in a wish for wellness.” Says Douglas-Takayesu. “Obviously, this year has been a year of illness for everyone.”
A new book about Sadako Sasaki was published this spring, and is available at the library.