Sadako Sasaki died on this day in 1955, age 12. Impermanence is swift. At the age of two, Sasaki was with her mother at her Hiroshima home about one mile from ground zero when American forces dropped an atomic bomb. She was blown out the window and when her mother ran out to find her, she found Sasaki alive with no apparent injuries. While they were fleeing, Sasaki and her mother were caught in black rain. Her grandmother rushed back to the house and was never seen again; she was later presumed to be dead. Though severely irradiated, Sasaki survived for another ten years, becoming one of the most widely known hibakusha – the Japanese term for "bomb-affected person." Sasaki is remembered for folding more than one thousand origami cranes before her death. Today, there are statues of her holding a paper crane in both the Hiroshima Peace Park and the Seattle Peace Park.
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