One folded paper crane, photographed so that it seems to be lifting.
The Postal Service recognizes the goal of international peace with a stamp bearing an origami crane, long a symbol of that hope. The association begins with Sadako Sasaki, who was two years old when she was exposed to the atomic bomb in Hiroshima in 1945 and was diagnosed with leukemia at twelve, in February 1955. While hospitalized she folded origami cranes — orizuru — following a folklore in which cranes live a thousand years, and a senbazuru of a thousand folds is said to grant one wish. She kept folding until her death that October. Sue DiCicco, artist and founder of the Peace Crane Project, folded the crane on the stamp; Sally Andersen-Bruce photographed it; art director Antonio Alcalá adjusted the shadows so the bird would look airborne. “These stamps enable people to send and receive a message of peace,” he says.
A small square of paper, doing a great deal of work.
PERFECT FOR: letters abroad and at home, gifts for teachers and peace educators, journal pages, condolence mail, and anyone who folds cranes and keeps them in a jar.
