First Annual Sadako Peace Day
City of Santa Barbara Proclamation
August 6, 1996

Whereas, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation is dedicated to creating a nuclear weapons free world under international law;

Whereas, the Sadako Peace Garden, located at La Casa de Maria, was created by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and La Casa de Maria, and was dedicated on August 6, 1995, the 50th anniversary of the first use of an atomic bomb in warfare; and

Whereas, Sadako Sasaki was two years old when the bombing of Hiroshima occurred, and died ten years after the bombing of Hiroshima from radiation-induced leukemia; and

Whereas, Japanese legend has it that one's wish will come true if one folds a thousand paper cranes; Sadako's wish was to get well and spread the message of peace and she wrote a poem, "I will write peace on your wings and you will fly all over the world"; and

Whereas, Sadako died with 646 cranes folded, and her classmates finished folding the paper cranes that have since become a symbol of peace throughout the world,

Now, Therefore, I, Harriet Miller, by virtue of the authority vested in me as Mayor of the City of Santa Barbara do hereby proclaim the day of August 6 1996 as the FIRST ANNUAL SADAKO PEACE DAY and call for efforts in our community and throughout the world to abolish nuclear weapons and to prevent people everywhere, particularly children, from suffering the horrors of war.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Official Seal of the City of Santa Barbara, California, to be affixed this 6th day of August 1996.

Harriet Miller, Mayor
Santa Barbara, California