When I was little, I went to a place I remember in my mind as Peace Camp. The camp director was the brother of a friend of my mother’s, and she worked out some deal to get me out of her hair for the summer. My first year, I was seven, the youngest camper there. For four whole weeks, I hollered Crosby, Stills, and Nash songs and created fairy alters in the woods with all the other kids of hippies and I loved every bit of it. But what I remember most from that first year and the next few after it was what we did on August 6, which I still think of as Hiroshima day.
On August 6, all the singing and running through the woods stopped. The whole camp came together, and the camp director read Sadako and the Paper Cranes. We talked about the bomb, and what came after. And on August 6, all day, we made paper cranes, we talked about current events, and we put all our attention towards that amorphous goal, peace.
I’m not sure what a bunch of kids in Vermont could really do. But every year on this day, I think about being tiny, remnants of face painting on my cheeks, half-made friendship bracelet safety pinned to my jeans. I remember sitting on the benches in the field where the camp would all come together, and squeezing my eyes shut as if I could concentrate every year of birthday cake wishes into one single moment. Peace. Peace. Peace.
Occasionally I teach workshops, and I have one coming up this fall. Join me and stellar novelist 
I LOVE this story.
I need to fold some origami cranes today : )
What a beautiful little story…I think I will remember August 6th as peace day from now on.
Beautiful story. It brought tears to my eyes.
I have told the story of the 1000 paper cranes so many times. It was told to me by a Buddhist monk walking from CA (where he landed from Japan) to Washington DC to give the President 1000 cranes and asking him for peace. He walked along the roads and highways and found pieces of paper, old newspapers, old magazine inserts, cigarette package foil – and he would fold them while he meditated in the evenings. I met him in Chicago at the Catholic Worker House where he was staying for a couple of days. Back in Japan he was the head of the Peace Pavilion and Park in Tokyo. All he wanted was peace, for the world to live without the threat of nuclear war. He was so simple, so gentle. I went with him to the Buddhist Temple for a blessing and was so impressed with his faith in mankind. No matter what someone had done, he could find good in them, he didn’t “forgive” them, but rather “walked around” the bad and saw the good hidden by it. As I bid him goodbye I was crying, for I didn’t want that island of peace to leave my life. He wished me Peace as he walked down the sidewalk, he stopped at the end and looked up at the blue sunny skies and smiled, then turned toward the lake and walked away, looking down for material for his cranes. I learned so much from him, including how to fold the cranes, how to believe when no one else did, how to look for the hidden good in people and how to realize that these good and honorable people come into our lives for a reason. So yes, Peace, Peace, Peace is a mantra that I understand and chant.
Thank you for this, Patricia. What a story <3
I’ve been learning Compassion lessons, lately. So for me, this is synchronistic. Thank you.
Peace. Peace. Peace.
Thank you, Patricia, for sharing your beautiful story of such a sacred experience. I feel like reading it was a true and honest gift.
Thank you for sharing your story. It is nice to hear that this horrifying event in Japanese history was remembered as peace day. As my children grow up, I often think how and when to tell about Hiroshima to them. They are half Japanese and half Mexican American, and I do believe it is important for them to know. How your camp counselor taught the kids is how I will be teaching my children.
Yes, yes. My parents worked all through my childhood on non-proliferation, and Sadako and the cranes (and The Butter Battle Book, which I read with my boys, little as they are) are touchstones for me. As for what good a group of kids in Vermont can do — I’m sure you’re familiar with “shine one corner of the world.” War can ripple out, but peace can too. So let’s all keep trying. Thank you as always for your wisdom and good words.
in my junior high (in Canada) we read a little bit of the book over the loudspeaker every morning for a month and made cranes to hang all over the school. I remember it being very powerful for me and now I want to re-read it, thanks for triggering the memory 🙂
It’s been so great to hear what an important place this book has held for other people, too. Isn’t it wonderful that a children’s book can have such power?
I remember seeing bumper stickers that said “Visualize World Peace” and and would think to myself that it was a crazy, useless thought. Then one day after seeing it again I realized you had to start somewhere, even as a simple thought! I will now put extra effort towards this goal every Aug. 6th.