This song tells the true story of Sadako, a girl who survived the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II. Later she got leukemia from the radiation released by the bomb. The words at the end of the song are inscribed at the base of her statue in the Hiroshima Peace Park.
The baby blinks her eye, as the sun falls from the sky She feels the sting of a thousand fires as the city around her dies Some sleep beneath the rubble, some wake to a different world From the crying babe will grow a laughing girl.
Ten summers fade to autumn, ten winters' snows have passed She's a child of dreams and dances, she's a racer strong and fast But the headaches come ever more often, and the dizziness always returns And the word she hears is leaukemia, and it burns
(Chorus:) Cranes over Hiroshima, white and red and gold Flicker in the sunlight, like a million vanished souls I will fold these cranes of paper to a thousand one by one And I'll fly away when I am done.
Her ancestors knew the legend - if you make a thousand cranes From squares of colored paper, it will take the pain away With loving hands she folds them, 644 'Till the morning her trembling fingers can't fold anymore.
(Chorus)
Her friends did not forget her - crane after crane they made Until they reached a thousand and they laid them upon her grave People from everywhere gathered, together a prayer they said And they wrote the words in granite, so none may forget:
"This is our cry, this is our prayer, peace in the world."
