The Thousand Crane Club has an Instagram account. Visit our Instagram @thethousandcraneclub to see updates about crane deliveries and club activity.
The Thousand Crane Club
Every year, Hiroshima International School receives thousands of paper cranes from schools, organizations, and individuals worldwide. Our club takes these cranes to the Peace Memorial Park and hangs them at the Children’s (Sadako) Monument on behalf of the senders. It is with pride that we make these small contributions to peace.
We invite your school to take part in this activity!
What can you do?
Read Sadako and The Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr. And create your own project to petition for world peace!
Send your folded cranes to HIS! We will deliver your cranes to the Peace Memorial Park at Sadako’s monument. Your name will be added to the official database and the Peace Park will send you an official letter of thanks.
Please note that 1000 folded paper cranes must be strung together in strands no longer than 170 cm, which are tied together in a bunch, to be accepted for hanging. Please use a strong string or fishing line and not a thin sewing thread. Once we receive your cranes, we will send you an email with a short thank you video created by the students from The Thousand Crane Club.
To send us your cranes, please follow this video below:
Before sending us your cranes, please contact us by emailing:
1000craneclub@hiroshima-is.ac.jp
You can also contact the 1000 Crane Club by writing to:
1000 Crane Club,
Hiroshima International School
3-49-1 Kurakake
Asakita-ku
Hiroshima 739-1743
Japan
History
The Thousand Crane Club was organized by Dr. Walter Enloe (former HIS principal), and Steve Leeper (Co-director of Hiroshima Center for Global Education) on October 25th, 1985.
The idea of this club originated during an HIS summer school class. The children and teachers were talking about Hiroshima and were discussing their feelings about war and peace, friendship, and nuclear weapons. The summer school students had been sent cranes folded out of paper from children in America and Canada, hoping that the students at HIS would place them at The Children’s Peace Monument which is located in Hiroshima Peace Park. The Canadian and American children, like the summer school students, had read and discussed the story of “Sadako” (a girl in Hiroshima who died of leukemia as a result of atomic radiation, to which The Children’s Peace Monument is dedicated – (see next article). The summer school students decided to string together all the cranes they had received together with their own cranes. They then took the cranes to be placed at the Children’s Peace Monument.
The summer school students talked about what they could do to build the same kind of friendships and understanding, that was evident at their school in Hiroshima, among children all over the world. Their idea was to begin a Thousand Crane Club so that students everywhere could work together on a common project that would help to promote peace and understanding around the world. Through the Thousand Crane Club they hoped to encourage children the world over to fold 1000 paper cranes as a way of promoting peace and making friends.
In 1995, the 50th anniversary of the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima, the HIS Student Council decided to take over the running of the Thousand Crane Club as a service activity.
During the 2005-6 school year, the 60th anniversary of the bombing, a group of High School students formed the first HIS Peace Mission, visiting Canada to give presentations to schools on Hiroshima’s message to the world.
In 2015, the 70th anniversary of the bombing, a group of High School students and teachers cycled the 450 km between the Peace Parks of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the first Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Ride.
