A bronze statue honoring a 12-year-old victim of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, was stolen from a Seattle park this weekend, according to local media reports.
The statue of Sadako Sasaki, who died of leukemia caused by exposure to radiation, was discovered on Friday severed from the ankles. The Seattle Police Department is investigating and said in a statement that local scrap collectors had been notified. City members, meanwhile, have theorized online that the bronze was taken by thieves who planned to sell the metal, suggesting that the robbers may not have had political motivations.
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Titled Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, the sculpture stands just over five feet tall and depicts Sasaki holding an origami crane, a nod to one of the thousand she folded in her hospital bed following the 1945 bombing by the United States. In Japan, paper cranes can symbolize hope and longevity, and it’s believed that if one has the patience to fold 1,000 of them, their wish will come true. Sadako died in 1955, becoming an antiwar symbol worldwide.
Her monument was erected in Peace Park, in Seattle’s University District, in 1995. It was conceived by Floyd Schmoe, a Quaker activist and professor who died in 2001, and sculpted by Darryl Smith. The statue was a beloved fixture in Seattle, which has a large Japanese community. Wishes, in the form of paper cranes, are regularly laid at her feet. Sasaki is honored in Japan with a monument in Hiroshima.
Speaking to the New York Times, the great-great-grandson of Schmoe, Avery Lockett, lamented the theft: “I thought that this had been like a personal attack on me. I am one of the only Schmoe people that are in Washington and the Seattle area that represents still what he’s for and why he even made that statue.”
Her statue in Peace Park was targeted by vandals once before in 2003, when her arm was cut off. Funded by donations, the arm was repaired, but now with the entirety of her body missing, the way forward is less obvious.
Lockett, a welder, has reportedly offered his services to replace the monument to Sadako if it is not recovered.