This New Year, a Paper Crane tells a Story…
- Independent Ink
- Dec 31, 2025
- 5 min read
Does it matter if one girl sits with her aunt to draw some pictures and write some words? We believe it matters.
By Maitreyi Kaptijn and Swarna Rajagopalan/Sapan News
As 2026 dawns, there is turmoil and suffering everywhere and the only wish that comes to mind is Peace. Reading the news, we wonder what we can do to help.
We are an aunt-niece team (Swarna and Maitreyi, respectively) that work on a creative peace project together every year. Maitreyi, who goes to school in the Netherlands, spends the summer in Chennai, where Swarna lives.
Since 2018, we have regularly marked the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with a creative collaborative project.
We have worked as equal collaborators on this project since 2018, when Maitreyi was just seven and Swarna a middle-aged professor. Every August, between the 6th and the 9th, our process unfolds more or less the same way.
We read together a little and discuss what is catching our attention. Then we brainstorm ideas of what we want to focus on, what we want to express and the medium of our choice. We both like words and drawing, so it is often a mix of both. We haven’t repeated ourselves so far. Discussion, decision-making and project work are all undertaken in secret. Then we share the project with our family.
So what have these projects been?
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In 2018, we wrote haikus and drew pictures and assembled a picture book.
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In 2019, we composed a song about human rights – which Maitrey plays on the ukulele and sings.
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In 2020, we wrote a short story about the bombing and illustrated it.
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In 2021, we read the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and drafted a simple Citizens’ Treaty with signatories pledging to do their part to bring about disarmament. Our first signatories were our family members and friends. (You can sign it too at the link and share!)
In 2023, the Doomsday Clock was our inspiration for a long poem called, What time is it now? which Maitreyi performed for the family. We also created a poster for the poem.
For our project in 2024, we imagined a rather ambitious project based on paper cranes, which have become a global symbol of peace thanks to Sadako Sasaki, the little Japanese girl who was exposed to radiation from the Hiroshima atomic bombing and died of leukemia. While in hospital, she folded hundreds of paper cranes, inspired by the belief that making a thousand would grant her wish.
Sadako’s story transformed the paper crane into a lasting emblem of remembrance, resilience, and the hope for a world free of nuclear violence.
For our project, Maitreyi first folded some beautiful paper cranes (Swarna tried but fumbled too much!) and took still-life photos of them. Next, we selected peace slogans from the Internet. Then, using Canva, we designed postcards using the photos of our paper cranes. We got these printed.
For our launch party, we had guests make their own paper cranes and write letters on the postcards, which we arranged to post for them. (You can download and print our postcards here.).
Our annual collaboration means a great deal to us. It is our way of putting our energy towards the cause of world peace. We do this because it’s a fun and approachable way for us and others to learn about heavier topics. Through our projects, we learn about different aspects of peace and disarmament, current development (like the Citizens Treaty in 2021 and the update of the Doomsday Clock in 2023) and we devote time to thinking about our part in making peace happen.
What have we learnt from doing this regularly?
Maitreyi says, “I have learnt a lot about how actions and decisions made by governments have to do with wars and peace, with often little actual regard for the people affected. Such as in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
“I struggle with despair and helplessness faced with problems that are huge and that affect me even if they seem distant,” says Swarna. “This annual activity with Maitreyi renews my will to do my best.”
We also both learn new skills from each other during our time on the project. We remind ourselves every year that there is no contribution too small.
Does it matter if one girl sits with her aunt to draw some pictures and write some words? We believe it matters.
Of course, it matters to us to spend time together in creative activities and we enjoy working together.
But it also matters because we need to keep learning about these issues that affect all of us.
“More awareness among people is very important. If more people realise the impact of peace, we can help prevent events like Hiroshima and Nagasaki from happening again,” says Maitreyi.
Swarna believes that it’s not just the two of them who learn.
Each person we share the project with, in any way, also learns not just what that year’s project conveys. Our projects also show that anyone can start working for peace wherever they are. It is important to do your bit as best you can.
In the last few years, we have witnessed an escalation of violence in the world. Between countries, between groups and between individuals, we seem to be accepting violence as normal. There is violence in our attitude, in our speech, in our interactions and in our responses to the world.
Every moment spent in contemplation of this reality and in reflection on how it can change pushes this trend back.
For us, Maitreyi and Swarna, our contribution is the time we devote to thinking about Hiroshima and Nagasaki’s experiences, the present circumstances that put us in danger again and finding a way to express how we feel.
The new year card we made this year expresses our wish for world peace in the quiet colours of a rosy dawn and bears in the corner, the photo of a tiny paper crane that was part of our annual peace project.
We wish you peace too!
Maitreyi Kaptijn is 14 years old and attends middle school in the Netherlands. Swarna
Rajagopalan is a peace educator and political scientist based in India.
This is a Sapan News syndicated feature available for republication with due credit to www.sapannews.com
(Why ‘Southasia’ as one word? Because our histories entangle, our struggles intersect, and our futures are bound together. It is not just a spelling choice, it’s a political and poetic one.)