On Wednesday, 9 August 2006, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and La Casa De Maria Retreat Center held the 11th Annual Sadako Peace Day Ceremony commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with music, poetry and reflections. The ceremony took place at the Sadako Peace Garden at the La Casa de Maria Retreat Center.

This year’s Sadako Peace Day ceremony commemorated the 61th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII. The event included music, poetry and reflection.

Sadako Peace Garden was inaugurated in 1995 on the 50 th anniversary of the bombings. It is named for Sadako Sasaki, a two-year-old girl when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Ten years later she developed leukemia. Japanese legend holds that one’s wish will be granted upon folding 1,000 paper (origami) cranes. Sadako’s wish was to be well and to spread peace. She wrote of her cranes, “I will write peace on your wings, and you will fly all over the world.” Sadako folded 646 cranes before her dying. Her friends finished folding the cranes in her memory. Today, a statue of Sadako stands in Hiroshima Peace Park and the paper crane has become a global symbol of peace.