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| Sadako Sasaki |
What follows is a somewhat complicated story - one with a simple beginning, but as the years pass, becomes more complicated with the twists and turns of politics and money.
The idea? Use sports and more specifically the Tokyo Olympics as an opportunity to build peace.
We might start this story with another story - that of Sadako Sasaki, who was born in Hiroshima in 1943. Here is her story as told on the Peace Orizumi website:
"Have you ever heard of Sadako Sasaki?
Sadako Sasaki was born in Hiroshima in 1943 during the Second World War. When she was two years old, the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and she was exposed to radiation. Sadako grew up as an active girl who was good at sport, and she studied at the Noboricho Municipal Elementary School in Hiroshima City. One day, about ten years after she was exposed to radiation, she was diagnosed with leukemia and was admitted to the hospital.
Prayer expressed through a thousand cranes
Prayer expressed through a thousand cranes
When Sadako was in the hospital, she received an orizuru - a paper crane. Sadako started to fold paper cranes herself, using any type of paper she could find. When the paper was so small that it was too difficult to fold by hand, she used a needle. One by one, she would fold the orizuru with the desire to live, believing that when she folded one thousand paper cranes, she would make a full recovery. Her prayer was not answered, and after eight months fighting for her life, she died in the hospital.
Orizuru as a symbol of peace
This true story led to the construction of the “Children’s Peace Monument” in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Sadako’s story spread across the world, and the orizuru became known as the “symbol of peace”.
The Peace Orizumi Project - Jump forward now to September 2013 when planning began for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. UNICEF Japan had been closely involved with planning for the Olympics and a three way partnership between the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the International Olympics Committee (the IOC) and UNICEF developed. The Games clearly provided a major opportunity for both advocacy and fundraising. As part of the plans, organizers conceived the Peace Orizumi Project as an opportunity to involve children and build advocacy for peace around the concept of the Olympic Truce. As the website explains:
"The PEACE ORIZURU is a project to promote a world free of war or conflicts through the folding of paper cranes, or orizuru, which are a symbol of peace. Everyone in the world can play an important part in this project. People pray for peace as they fold each orizuru, and their prayers come together in Tokyo to empower the “Olympic Truce.”
What is the Olympic Truce? In July 2020 we published an article by Horst Cerni (The Olympic Truce - the IOC and UNICEF), explaining the Olympic Truce and the agreement signed in February 1993 by Jim Grant and the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Juan Antonio Samaranch The General Assembly then built on the IOC / UNICEF agreement with its Resolution 48/11 of 25 October 1993, calling on governments to observe the Olympic Truce for a period of 7 days before until 7 days following the closing of Olympic games. The war in Bosnia was the initial target for use of the Olympic Truce as an opportunity to pause the fighting.
A forgotten agreement - In preparation for the article Horst had to do considerable digging to find a copy of the agreement or press releases by the two sides. Remarkably, both UNICEF and the IOC seemed completely unaware that an agreement had ever been signed between the two organizations.
IOC withdraws - At some point the earlier three-way partnership between the Tokyo organizers, UNICEF, and the IOC for cooperation around Tokyo 2020 fell apart. The IOC, apparently concerned that UNICEF would use the Olympics as an opportunity for raising funds that might otherwise go to the IOC, withdrew from the planning. The Peace Orizumi Project still appeared on the Tokyo 2020 website, but the role the IOC might play became unclear.
The discovery of the 1993 agreement has now provided some hope that the IOC might be coaxed back into the planning.