At Sunset last night, we floated paper lanterns at Aquatic Park in Berkeley.
This tradition took root with the story of Sadako Sasaki, who was two when the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. She was later diagnosed with leukemia.
An old legend in Japanese culture held that the person who folds 1,000 "paper cranes" of the sort in these photos will have her wish granted.
Over time she came to give up her first wish (to survive) and changed it to a new wish -- that this type of horrible violence never happen again. Sadako made it to 664 lanterns before she passed away in 1955, a decade after the bomb was dropped.
Her friends and family folded the remaining 356 to bury with her.
There is a monument to her at Hiroshima. It reads: "This is our prayer. This is our cry. Peace in the world."
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