Sadako Sasaki
In early August 1955, Sadako was moved into a room with a girl named Kiyo, who was a junior high school student who was two years older than her. Origami cranes were brought to her room by a local high school club. On 3 August, when Sadako asked why origami cranes were brought into her room, Chizuko Hamamoto, Sadako's friend, told her a legend that folding origami cranes would grant someone's wish, and it had to be 1000 of them. Upon hearing this, Sadako began folding 1000 origami cranes, in the hope of recovery from leukemia. Although she had plenty of free time during her days in the hospital, she began to run out of paper, and began using things such as medicine wrappers. She even went to other patient's rooms and asked for paper wrappers from their get well soon presents. However, given her illness, it is disputed whether Sadako ever managed to fold 1000 origami cranes.