The city of Porto, Portugal, has a sister city relationship with the city of Nagasaki since 1978. As a symbol of the sister city relationship and to remember the atomic bombing as well as to express its solidarity with the city of Nagasaki, the city of Porto applied for the project through the Japanese Embassy in Portugal.
Jardins do Palacio de Cristal, the planting site, is the biggest garden in the city center and surrounded by the Sports Pavilion where concerts and sports games are held, Almeida Garrett Library and restaurants. The garden is crowded with local residents who enjoy strolling as looking at beautiful trees in the city or the lake.
Prior to the tree planting ceremony, a person who knows how to make origami taught teachers at elementary schools how to make origami cranes and then those teachers taught their children how to make those. Kindergarten teachers taught children about the atomic bomb, peace and the girl named Sadako using drama and a shadow play. Many children at about 10 elementary schools and 5 kindergartens participated in those sessions and took many days to prepare to welcome the tree.
On 21st of March, the day of tree planting ceremony, more than 600 children and local people attended. Children sang the song called “A Thousand Cranes.” An address was given by the mayor and messages from Mr. Ebinuma and the Japanese Embassy in Lisbon were also introduced. A display of origami works and pictures made by children ages from 3 to 10 was there at the same time. The representatives of children who gathered in the vast garden planted the tree by covering it with soil using a shovel which was about the same length as their height.
The ceremony was also broadcast on a national television network and covered in newspaper, and thousand origami cranes made by those children were later sent to the city of Nagasaki.
