The Hiroshima city government will loan some of the paper cranes gifted by U.S. President Barack Obama to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, a municipal official said Thursday.
Obama folded four cranes, giving them to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and to elementary and junior high school students who welcomed him during his historic visit in May.
Some of the cranes will be exhibited at the Nagasaki museum for three months from September, along with a reproduction of a message he wrote in a visitors book.
The Hiroshima city government decided to loan the cranes after Mayor Kazumi Matsui sounded out Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue in a phone call this month, the official said.
"We would like to make use of them together, as the two cities share an ambition to foster momentum toward eliminating nuclear weapons," the official said, noting that Hiroshima's museum has seen increased visitor numbers since Obama's visit.
The Hiroshima government is considering displaying some of the cranes at an atomic bomb exhibition to be held from Oct. 1 in Chicago, Obama's hometown. The two Japanese cities are organizing the event.