A statue of a Hiroshima bombing survivor whose story is widely recognized was stolen from Peace Park in Seattle after standing there for decades, police reported.
The statue, “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Planes” by artist Daryl Smith, is dedicated to Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who survived the 1945 Hiroshima atomic bombings during WWII, which killed hundreds of thousands of people. Sasaki later suffered from leukemia due to the radioactive effects of the bombs and died ten years after the attacks at age 12. Her story, which was published as a historical children’s novel, also titled Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, by Eleanor Coerr, has become a symbol of peace.
The monument to Sasaki was erected in 1990 in the city’s University District on the north side of the University Bridge, after Quaker activist Dr. Floyd Schmoe funded the Peace Park project. The statue of her is Seattle’s only outdoor monument honoring a historical woman figure, according to Axios.
While sick in the hospital with cancer, Sasaki folded hundreds of paper cranes as a demonstration of hope. Each year in Seattle, hundreds of people visit Peace Park and bring paper cranes to place by the statue.
Seattle police spokesperson Brian Pritchard said the city’s Parks and Recreation department filed a police report Friday for first-degree theft and malicious mischief, The Seattle Times reported. The department is still investigating, but some community members have speculated the thief was after the monetary value in the statue’s bronze cast, as the theft of valuable metals has become of national concern recently.
Colleen Kimseylove, office manager at the nearby Quakers meeting house for the University Friends Meeting, said the statue disappeared overnight and was declared missing on Friday.
“I was just devastated,” Kimseylove told The Seattle Times. “I wanted to cry. Sadako is a 12-year-old girl who died of leukemia after the Hiroshima bombing. She didn’t do anything to anyone. [It makes] me feel like Floyd’s dream of peace in Seattle is a little further away than it was.”
Kimseylove said the Quaker group’s main priority is getting the statue returned.
“We hope that this person has a dark night of the soul where the light comes to them, they realize what a mistake they’ve made, how important Sadako is to so many people, and bring her back,” she added.
Just over five-feet tall, the sculpture depicts Sasaki holding an origami crane. The only part of the monument left remaining was Sasaki’s feet.
