Folding Paper Cranes: An Atomic Memoir

by Leonard Bird

 Between 1951 and 1962 the Atomic Energy Commission triggered some one hundred atmospheric detonations of nuclear weapons at the Nevada Test Site. U.S. military troops who participated in these tests were exposed to high doses of radiation. Among them was a young Marine named Leonard Bird. In Folding Paper Cranes Bird juxtaposes his devastating experience of those atomic exercises with three visits over his lifetime—one in the 1950s before his Nevada assignment, one in 1981, and one in the early 1990s—to the International Park for World Peace in Hiroshima.


Among the monuments to tragedy and hope in Hiroshima’s Peace Park stands a statue of Sadako Sasaki holding a crane in her outstretched arms. Sadako was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on her city; she was diagnosed with leukemia ten years later. According to popular Japanese belief, folding a thousand paper cranes brings good fortune. Sadako spent the last months of her young life folding hundreds of paper cranes. She folded 644 before she died.


As he journeys from the Geiger counters, radioactive dust, and mushroom clouds of the Nevada desert to the bronze and ivory memorials for the dead in Japan, Bird—himself a survivor of radiation-induced cancer—seeks to make peace with his past and with a future shadowed by nuclear proliferation. His paper cranes are the poetry and prose of this haunting memoir.

Genres: Historical, Nonfiction

168 pages, Paperback

First published March 30, 2005

Reviews

[Rosa]

“Chicken in a Pot.”

[Emily Kestrel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a powerful book that, at times, I felt a bit stunned by it. Leonard Bird uses poetry and prose to describe his experiences as a Marine Sergeant, marching through radioactive dust in one of the military's nuclear tests, and his three trips to the Hiroshima Peace Park as he tries to come to terms with the horror of nuclear weapons. Even as his own health has suffered from the long-term effects of radiation exposure (including bone cancer), he struggles to find understanding and hope for the future.

He writes with such eloquence, humility and compassion that this slender work is much more than a deluge of sorrow; although it is, in parts, very sad. So much has been written about topics of war and devastation that it is easy to become numb to these themes--let's think about something happier instead. Something about this book rips right through any such postmodern ennui. People often talk about praying for peace. This book is such a prayer. Recommended for everybody.

Also, it would be a good companion piece to Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams, another book I love.

[Jeff Tigchelaar · Rating 5 out of 5]

met this amazing man at a writers conference. had no idea of his story until i found this book much later... astonishing.

[Randi]

Loved this book. A very short, yet poignant book written by a professor emeritus of Fort Lewis College.

[Adriane Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Astonishing, horrific and hopeful all at once.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have rated this more highly, however, I thought the writing was poor. The content was fascinating and disturbing

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, atrocious cover.
Second, fantastic book.

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Numbing and in some parts, hard to read. That said, it did end with some element of hope.