Photo/Illutration Anna Elisabeth Oyrehagen Akselvoll made the paper crane in the center of the photo at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo on Dec. 12. (Asako Hanafusa)

OSLO—The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony gave both Norwegian and Japanese citizens an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of making “orizuru” folded-paper cranes, a symbol of prayers for peace in Japan.

The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) was awarded the prize in Oslo on Dec. 10.

Kyoka Fujimoto, a 27-year-old Japanese who has been living in Oslo since 2022, came to the Nobel Peace Center in the city at 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 12 carrying a “senbazuru,” or a string of 1,000 paper cranes tied together.

Fujimoto had organized orizuru-making classes at various venues across Oslo to complete the 1,000 cranes.

She donated the senbazuru to the peace center to coincide with the opening of “A Message to Humanity,” an exhibition on Nihon Hidankyo’s history, for public viewing.

Fujimoto is currently a “cultural consultant” who helps with the public relations of Japanese-affiliated businesses.

She said that as a Japanese in Norway, she wanted to help in some way when she learned that Nihon Hidankyo had won the Nobel Peace Prize.

“I want people to have an opportunity to see paper cranes and give thoughts to what they mean,” Fujimoto said she thought at the time.

Bendik Egge, director of education with the Nobel Peace Center, received the senbazuru from Fujimoto.

“It is not meant to be a tactile or a tangible act, which will in itself destroy (even) a small part of a nuclear weapon,” Egge, 32, said. “(Making the paper cranes) has to be understood as an expression of a hope, which has a deep cultural significance. But it is also an activity that can be meaningful because it creates an opportunity to speak, listen and discuss” (the consequences of using nuclear weapons).

An orizuru class was held at the peace center starting around noon that day.

Peace center staff members came to a table, where Fujimoto had laid out origami paper pieces of various colors.

Among the class participants was Anna Elisabeth Oyrehagen Akselvoll, a 23-year-old guide.

She said she had guided Nihon Hidankyo delegation members only a day earlier, on Dec. 11, and received enough paper cranes from hibakusha to provide Christmas presents for all of her family members.

“Thinking of the speech about what those survivors have been experiencing since 1945 and seeing their orizuru as a special symbol brought me to tears,” she said.

Oyrehagen Akselvoll said she will arrange some of the paper cranes in the bedroom of her house, where she lives with her fiance, and in the living room of the home where her 90-year-old grandmother, a war survivor, lives.

She added she will take good care of the orizuru for the rest of her life and will use them to decorate the venue of her wedding scheduled for next summer.

Makoto Kamata, a staff worker with Kwansei Gakuin University, attended the orizuru class as an instructor on Dec. 12.

Kamata, 43, is an officially recognized “account teller” who relays the experiences of an atomic bomb survivor. He came to Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.

Kamata said he believes that paper cranes “fly from one person to another.”

“They open the hearts of those who have seen them and those who have been given them,” he said. “I hope the orizuru will serve as a gateway for people to learn that those who are collectively called hibakusha each have individual faces and names and have lived individual lives.”

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