Within Asia, the white crane is the bird of peace. The crane took on this symbolism after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. In 1955 an eleven year old Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki was diagnosed with leukaemia from exposure to nuclear radiation. She heard that if she folded a thousand paper cranes, she would be granted a wish. So she began folding one crane after another, wishing for a well body within a world of peace. Sadly, she died within the year, but her story went out to the people of the world.