President Obama's Origami Skills

Two of the cranes presented by U.S. President Barack Obama at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward (Yuta Takahashi)

The other day, I posted on President Obama's Hiroshima visit.  There's been some speculation as to whether or not he folded his four cranes himself.  So this is a follow-up post:

HIROSHIMA--On his historic visit to ground zero, U.S. President Barack Obama surprised and touched officials at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum on May 27 with origami paper cranes he apparently made himself.

The museum is preparing to display Obama's four origami cranes, hoping to embolden efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

The president said he folded them with help from others as his envoy showed off the origami cranes, made of traditional Japanese paper graced with flower motifs, including apricots or cherries, placed on a tray.

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As the acrylic casing that houses some of Sadako’s cranes was removed for the president, Obama studied them up close and said he brought his own.

He gave two of his four cranes to two students who were allowed inside the museum to welcome him, the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima.

Obama left the other two on the guest book he signed with the message: “We have known the agony of war. Let us now find the courage, together, to spread peace and pursue a world without nuclear weapons.”

The president later moved to a location in the park where he could view the A-Bomb Dome after laying a wreath of flowers to the monument for the victims and delivering a message. Kishida also referred to the monument modeled on Sadako.

All of Obama’s four cranes were subsequently donated to the museum.

“The president may have prepared the cranes after learning of Sadako’s story in the United States," said Kenji Shiga, the museum director. "We are going to exhibit his cranes as soon as we are ready.”

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Two of the four origami cranes made by President Obama