Compiled by Janet Hamilton
From the OrigamiUSA Newsletter Issue 73, 2001/Volume 1
While we may each consider it a historic event the first time we successfully completed the Jackstone, or learned the Magic Rose Cube, origami has made an appearance in some truly historic events. The sightings below were reported by members of the origami e-mail list.
Pearl Harbor An article entitled "Savoring The Aloha Spirit" in the New York Times, Sunday Feb. 6, 2000, refers to the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. The last sentence reads: "Among the floral offerings at the wall of honor is a rainbow of origami flowers, left by students of a Japanese high school."
Hiroshima Bombing - On 8/6/2000 CNN carried an article on the 55th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. One of the pictures in the gallery shows children offering paper cranes. http://www.cnn.com/2000/ASIANOW/east/08/06/hiroshima.anniversary/index.html
Port Arthur (Australia) shootings - On 4/28/96 a young man shot a number of people at a historic colonial prison in Tasmania, Australia. While dedicating a memorial in May 2000, white origami birds were floated on a pool, representing each of the people slain or injured.
The Golden Venture - The immigrant-smuggling ship Golden Venture ran aground off Long Island, NY on 6/6/93. There were 282 survivors. The cable TV program Nation Within aired a show on the Golden Venture, and The Museum of Chinese in the Americas ran an exhibit called “Fly to Freedom: Art of the Golden Venture Refugees” (also reported in the New York Press). The refugees were detained for nearly 4 years while their request for asylum was processed. During that time, they created modular paper artworks that included animals, boats, fruits, vases and other objects. http://soundprint.org/documentaries/1999/golden_venture/ http://fargo.itp.tsoa.nyu.edu/~chin/mca/freedom.html
Whitewater - A political cartoon by Signe Wilkinson in the 1/22/96 Austin American-Statesman showed a small cottage with children playing outside and a sign saying “Hillary’s It Takes a Village Child Care”. A likeness of Hillary Clinton stands at the door of the cottage waving to a mother taking her child home. The child is saying, "And we made origami out of some old files." He is holding a crane that says Whitewater and Rose Law on the wings.
Princess Diana’s Funeral - A beautiful cluster of a thousand cranes was spotted at the entrance to Westminster Abbey during TV coverage of the funeral (9/6/97).
U.S. Income Taxes - The Week in Review section of the 12/7/97 New York Times had a photograph of a traditional paper hat folded by Representative Dick Armey (R-TX) from a Form 1040 (U.S. Individual Income Tax Return).
Frank Sinatra - The 5/16/98 New York Post coverage of the death of Frank Sinatra included a picture of a bartender showing Frank, the bartender, and a woman. In the picture were 7 or 8 money folds, mostly bow ties, but two of them were the dollar bill shirt by Rachel Katz.
Nagano Olympics – In Time South Pacific, 2/1/99, an article called “Japan’s Sullied Bid” describes Nagano after the Olympics: “There is no joy in Nagano these days. The little city in the Japanese alps got the tone just right last year, from sumo wrestlers piggy-backing smiling youngsters in snow suits to small details like the little souvenir origami cranes. But in its scramble to win the games, Nagano authorities seem to have forgotten about the rights of average citizens, critics say.”
Serial killer Charles Ng - Trial summaries mentioned that Ng had petitioned the court for origami paper to fold while he awaited another phase in his trials (San Francisco Chronicle, 1999). His request was denied. His various domiciles, which have included Folsom Prison, the Orange County Jail, and San Quentin have imposed varying restrictions on his origami activities, some of which he has overcome by requesting books, papers, and diagrams from correspondents. He has also, on occasion, bestowed (or consigned) artworks on his correspondents, which have found their way to Internet auction sites. During the sentencing phase of his trial, one newspaper article reported that his origami activities were cited as evidence that he should not be sentenced to death.
Y2K - "Designs for the Next Millennium” on page 123 of the 12/5/99 NY Sunday Times Magazine described the design of a time capsule: "But its shape evokes a flower, an origami construction, a mandala - all objects that resonate on a more subjective level." A person states that the shape of the units of the large metal capsule reminded him of the cootie-catchers he made as a kid.
Sadako - An SBS (Australia) TV program on 8/6/2000 interviewed Sadako’s friends and family. Many of her cranes were shown, even ones made from candy wrappers, and the last one she ever made, which was tiny, and displayed by her father. The program reported that she actually made more than 1,000 cranes, and she believed they helped her friend, who was discharged from the hospital and interviewed on the program. The program then cut to Los Alamos, where the local children were prevented form putting up a peace memorial, then to a school where the teacher uses Sadako as a metaphor for peace.
Sydney Olympics - Architecture Australia, May 1998, carried an article about the design of the new Olympic Park Railway Station “The entire superstructure has an air of extraordinary lightness in the manner of a Felix Candela ferro-cement umbrella. It has the 'thin-ness' of an origami caterpillar. Interestingly, the architects modeled the roof during the entire development phase in paper and light card.”
Zero Tolerance Policies - in response to the shootings Columbine High School, many schools have adopted a “zero tolerance” policy for real or toy weapons. The 11/2/2000 Newport Daily Press reported a case at Dozier Middle School in Newport News, Virginia which suspended a 12-year-old boy for bringing an origami gun to school. http://www.sierratimes.com/txt/arnn110200.htm
The 2000 U.S. Presidential Election - “The Modern World” comic strip by Tom Tomorrow on 11/22/2000 parodied various imaginary “difficult” presidential ballots, such as a tapestry ballot, a backwards ballot, and an origami ballot – which requires voters to make a paper swan out of their ballots before voting.