HONOLULU: A small paper crane folded by a 12-year-old girl who died of leukemia after the US dropped an atom bomb on her hometown of Hiroshima will go on display in Pearl Harbor, where the 1941 Japanese attack launched the two nations into war.
Sadako Sasaki’s family donated the origami crane to promote peace and overcome the tragedies of the past.
“We have both been wounded and have suffered painfully. We don’t want the children of the future to go through the same experience,” said Yuji Sasaki, the girl’s nephew, by telephone from Hiroshima.
Starting Saturday, the crane will be part of an exhibit at the visitors’ center at Pearl Harbor near the USS Arizona battleship that sank during the Dec. 7 bombing.
The tiny crane — it’s about the size of a pinky fingernail — will occupy a small corner of one of two exhibit halls at the center, which is operated by the National Park Service.
Sadako Sasaki folded between 1,000 and 2,000 of the cranes while battling leukemia in 1955 (her family never counted exactly how many) after hearing an old Japanese story that those who fold a thousand cranes are granted one wish.
The 6th grader’s wish was to get better, but she died less than three months after she started the project.
Her story has since become well-known around the world, and origami cranes have become a symbol of peace.
The family has also given one crane to the Tribute WTC Visitor Center, next to Ground Zero in New York, and to the Austrian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution.
Yuji Sasaki said his family wanted one crane to go to Pearl Harbor because he feels there’s still a gulf between some Americans and Japanese when it comes to how the war between their two countries began and how it ended.
For example, he said, when people from Hiroshima and Nagasaki say, “No more Hiroshima, no more Nagasaki” to protest the use of nuclear weapons, he hears Americans reply with the phrase “Remember Pearl Harbor.”
The first time he witnessed an exchange like this in person, he said he thought: “I’m not going to get people to talk about the future this way.”
He hopes the crane will create opportunities for atom bomb and Pearl Harbor survivors to interact and think about each other’s perspectives.
“If we are going to pave the way to peace for the children of the future, we can’t pass on the grudges of the past,” said Yuji Sasaki, who helps run Sadako Legacy, a nonprofit organization promoting peace and his aunt’s story.
Lauren Bruner, who was a 21-year-old sailor on the Arizona on Dec. 7, welcomed the gift.
“There’s always somebody that will never forgive or forget, but I think it’s a nice gesture,” said Bruner, who suffered burns over 70 percent of his body and lost his best friend in the bombing.
Now 92, Bruner plans to speak at a ceremony opening the new crane exhibit on Saturday.
Hiroshima girl’s paper crane comes to Pearl Harbor
Hiroshima girl’s paper crane comes to Pearl Harbor
Cambodia takes back looted historic artifacts handled by British art dealer
- The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodian officials on Friday received more than six dozen historic artifacts described as part of the country’s cultural heritage that had been looted during decades of war and instability.
At a ceremony attended by Deputy Prime Minister Hun Many, the 74 items were unveiled at the National Museum in Phnom Penh after their repatriation from the United Kingdom.
The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia.
“This substantial restitution represents one of the most important returns of Khmer cultural heritage in recent years, following major repatriations in 2021 and 2023 from the same collection,” the Culture Ministry said in a statement. “It marks a significant step forward in Cambodia’s continued efforts to recover, preserve, and restore its ancestral legacy for future generations.”
The artifacts were described as dating from the pre-Angkorian period through the height of the Angkor Empire, including “monumental sandstone sculptures, refined bronze works, and significant ritual objects.” The Angkor Empire, which extended from the ninth to the 15th century, is best known for the Angkor Wat archaeological site, the nation’s biggest tourist attraction.
Latchford was a prominent antiquities dealer who allegedly orchestrated an operation to sell looted Cambodian sculptures on the international market.
From 1970 to the 1980s, during Cambodia’s civil wars and the communist Khmer Rouge ‘s brutal reign, organized looting networks sent artifacts to Latchford, who then sold them to Western collectors, dealers, and institutions. These pieces were often physically damaged, having been pried off temple walls or other structures by the looters.
Latchford was indicted in a New York federal court in 2019 on charges including wire fraud and conspiracy. He died in 2020, aged 88, before he could be extradited to face charges.
Cambodia, like neighboring Thailand, has benefited from a trend in recent decades involving the repatriation of art and archaeological treasures. These include ancient Asian artworks as well as pieces lost or stolen during turmoil in places such as Syria, Iraq and Nazi-occupied Europe. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the prominent institutions that has been returning illegally smuggled art, including to Cambodia.
“The ancient artifacts created and preserved by our ancestors are now being returned to Cambodia, bringing warmth and joy, following the country’s return to peace,” said Hun Many, who is the younger brother of Prime Minister Hun Manet.
