Police investigating theft of WWII tribute statue in Seattle

A statue that’s a symbol of peace is now the focus of a police investigation.

Someone stole the work of art from a park in Seattle’s University District.

That statue, called Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, is now gone from Peace Park after someone cut the five-foot bronze sculpture at the feet.

“I like to think that it was desperation of poverty and they thought that they could get some money from the metal in it. That’s the only reason I can think of that’s anything other than just plain being mean and vicious,” said Nora Percival, a member of University Friends Meeting, a Quaker meetinghouse.

Joeth Zucco may have been the first to notice the statue was missing while on a walk with friends early Friday morning.

“I always look over, to look at it, and it was gone. So we were just kind of shocked and speechless,” said Zucco.

Since 1990, the statue of Sadako Sasaki, a two-year-old girl who survived the Hiroshima bombing in 1945, stood in Peace Park right across the street from the University Friends Meeting.

The park and the statue were part of a project funded by a Quaker peace activist.

“People, mostly children, have brought strings of folded, colorful paper cranes to hang around Sadako’s neck,” said Percival.

It’s a tribute to the girl who folded hundreds of paper cranes in the hospital, hoping to recover from leukemia.

She died at the age of 12.

It’s a story told in the popular children’s book, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.

“I don’t know how optimistic I am that she comes back. I think our fallback position will be to raise the money to have a new statue cast to replace it, because I for one, want to make sure that Sadako stays in the neighborhood,” said Percival.

Seattle police are now investigating. So far, no word on any motive or suspects in the case.