Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

One autumn day, Sadako returns home from school and joyfully announces that her classmates chose her to participate in a relay race on Field Day. She hopes that performing well in the race will secure her a place on the racing team when she starts junior high school next year. Sadako trains every day.

When Field Day arrives, Sadako’s parents ease her nerves by telling her they’ll be proud of her as long as she tries her best. Sadako runs “with all the strength she had” (25), and her team wins. After the race, she feels a strange and sudden dizziness. Over the next few months, Sadako continues training to work toward her goal of making the junior high team. The dizzy spells worsen, and she decides to keep them a secret from her friends and family.

On New Year’s Eve, Sadako makes a secret wish for her dizzy spells to end. On New Year’s Day, she and her family join the crowds of people visiting shrines. Sadako has a wonderful time, and she beats Masahiro when she races her brother back home. Looking at the good luck symbols her mother placed over their door, Sadako feels reassured: “With a beginning like this, how could anything bad happen?” (27).