Peace Park, in Seattle, WA was created by Dr. Floyd Schmoe, a Quaker activist. Dr. Flyd Schmoe won the Hiroshima Peace Prize in 1998, awarding him $5,000, which he used towards the small park.
Sadako and the Thousand Cranes sculpture, created in 1990 by artist Daryl Smith, is in the center of the park. The sculpture is a life sized bronze, showing Sadako with her hand raised up and holding a paper crane. There are real strings of colorful folded paper cranes draped around her neck, arm and around her feet. These cranes are regularly refreshed by people from all over.
In December of 2003, vandals cut off Sadako's arm. While she was being repaired, a debate was started about where to keep Sadako in the future. Some said that it would be better to have her in a more prominant park, where she would be more likely to be seen and less likely to be vandalized. Others said that she had been put there and lovingly tended by Dr. Floyd Schmoe, and that the sculpture was a central feature of Peace Park. It was eventually decided to let her stay, and she was returned in January of 2005.
Sadako was a two year old girl living in Hiroshima, one mile from ground zero, when it was bombed. After living a normal life for nine years, she became ill from leukemia, from the after affects of the bomb. She died a year later, on October 25, 1955, at the age of twelve.
While Sadako was in the hospital battling leukemia, she heard the traditional story of the thousand paper cranes. It was said that whoever was able to make a thousand paper cranes would have their wish granted. So she started making paper cranes in her hospital bed. She would use whatever paper was available at the hospital. Reports differ on whether or not she was able to create one thousand cranes before she died.
Although Sadako was not healed as she had hoped, her courage caused the legend of the thousand paper cranes to become a symbol of peace for children everywhere. Soon after she died, her classmates and schools from around Japan raised enough money within two years to create a memorial to Sadako and all the children who had died in the bombing. The Children's Peace Monument in Peace Memorial Park in the City of Hiroshima, is a statue of Sadako with a crane above her outstretched hands. The plaque reads:
"This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world."
Many strings of paper cranes are sent to the Hiroshima park, by children and people from all over. Today, it is estimated that 10 million paper cranes a year are sent there from around the world.
Some links about Sadako, the Seattle sculpture, and the Hiroshima sculpture:
Seattle P.I. article about Seattle Peace Park and the Sadako and the Thousand Cranes statue
Peace Park Wiki page
Seattle Arts Walking Tour
Japanese Cranes Symbols of Peace
Sadako Sasaki Wiki page
Sadako Sasaki story
Hiroshima City Children's Peace Monument and Peace Memorial Park page
A moving documentary talking about the bombs and the after affects to the people living there: White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki