In the children's book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, a 12-year-old girl who had been living close to ground zero when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 is diagnosed with leukemia and given a short time to live. So she begins folding paper cranes; in Japan, it's said that if you fold 1,000 of them, you will be granted a wish. Sadako folds the cranes in the hope that she will
![In Japan, Teenage Girls Folding Paper Cranes Has Taken on a Whole New Meaning](https://cdn-ak-scissors.b.st-hatena.com/image/square/3c1516ce3fb008ccc526f4c4da00a89e9419f232/height=288;version=1;width=512/https%3A%2F%2Fnews-images.vice.com%2Fimages%2Farticles%2Fmeta%2F2015%2F07%2F20%2Fin-japan-teenage-girls-folding-paper-cranes-has-taken-on-a-very-different-meaning-1437416705.jpg%3Fimage-resize-opts%3DY3JvcD0xeHc6MC44MjQ3ODAwNTg2NTEwMjY0eGg7Y2VudGVyLGNlbnRlciZyZXNpemU9MTIwMDoqJnJlc2l6ZT0xMjAwOio)