( CNN ) -- When Sadako Sasaki lay in her hospital bed sick with leukemia , she showed her father origami cranes from local school girls . `` When you fold 1,000 paper cranes , you will get well , '' her dad responded . Sadako was just 12 . Hoping to get better , she began folding tiny origami cranes , using paper from get-well gifts and wrappers from medicine . She had survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6 , 1945 . Yet 10 years later , her fragile body suffered the effects of exposure to radiation . `` Please treasure the life that is given to you , '' Sadako said before her death on October 25 , 1955 . `` It is my belief that my small paper crane will enable you to understand other people 's feelings , as if they are your own . '' Sadako 's death inspired a memorial in Japan 's Hiroshima Peace Park , complete with a statue of her holding a golden crane . Now , one of her last origami cranes resides in a new memorial thousands of miles away , in the country that dropped the bomb . It was given to the Tribute WTC Visitor Center in New York by her aging brother . `` I thought if Sadako 's crane is placed at Ground Zero , it will be very meaningful , '' says Masahiro Sasaki , in an education program produced by the tribute center and the Japan Society . `` Commonly , in Japan , the crane is regarded as a symbol of peace . But for us , in the Sasaki family , it is the embodiment of Sadako 's life , and it is filled with her wish and hope . '' `` I hope by talking about that small wish for peace , the small ripple will become bigger and bigger . '' The delicate red crane , smaller than a fingernail , is on display at the center . Hanging near it are origami cranes that were placed on the fence around Ground Zero after the September 11 , 2001 , terrorist attacks . Another 10,000 cranes from families and colleagues of Japanese victims of 9/11 surround Sadako 's . `` This little girl believed that the world could be made better if we all worked together , '' says Lee Ielpi , the co-founder of the center , whose grown son , Jonathan , was killed on September 11 . `` It sends that beautiful message : Even in death , we 're going to carry on that little girl 's wish . ... I 'm so tickled we can carry on her wish . '' Meriam Lobel , the center 's curator , says staffers were speechless when Masahiro Sasaki presented the gift . `` He lifted it out with this little , tiny tweezer and there was this beautiful red glistening crane , '' Lobel says . `` It was like a gem , like a little red ruby . '' For Tsugio Ito , the symbolism of the crane holds special meaning . `` When the atomic bomb was dropped , I was exercising in the schoolyard at the elementary school . My brother was a student at the high school , '' he says in the center 's educational program . He survived . His brother was killed in the bombing . Fast forward six decades . Ito 's son was working for Fuji Bank in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11 . Kazushige Ito , 35 , was one of 24 Japanese killed on 9/11 . `` After September 11 , we waited for him to call . One month passed , then two months , then I came to accept that perhaps this means he is gone , '' he told the center . `` Every time I visit the World Trade Center site , I wonder where my son was and where he suffered . '' What happened that day only reinforces `` how important it is to have peace . '' `` We must have peace , '' Ito says . `` I feel that stronger now than ever before . '' Tom Johnson has been active on the board of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation ever since 9/11 when terrorists killed 2,976 people . His 26-year-old son , Scott , was among the victims . When he visits the center , he cherishes two items in particular : his son 's death certificate , which lists `` homicide '' as his cause of death , and Sadako 's origami crane . `` You have to derive some kind of message of meaning that will make the world heal , '' he says . Sadako 's brother says the spirit of his sister lives on in the crane , `` because she had a heart of kindness . '' He had five of her original cranes . He hopes to give the others away to museums on other continents . `` As a victim of war or a victim of terrorism , we share the same grief , and share the sense of duty to tell the stories to our children and our children 's children , '' he says . `` Although the incidents were different , I hope we can help each other work for world peace from now on . ''
Origami crane , made by girl that inspired a nation , is now on display at 9/11 center . Score: 6 Her brother recently donated an original crane as message of peace . `` Even in death , we 're going to carry on that little girl 's wish , '' center 's co-founder says .