SEATTLE — Three weeks after the statue of a Hiroshima bombing survivor was stolen from a Seattle park, the search continues for the missing artwork.
The statue of Sadako Sasaki stood in Seattle's Peace Park for decades, until a Friday morning in July when it was discovered someone stole the statue, cutting it at her ankles.
Members of the Japanese American community came together earlier this week at a healing ceremony. They are calling for peace and unity — and for someone to do the right thing and return the statue.
The five-foot, life-size bronze statue of Sadako is a symbol of peace. She's a Japanese girl that was 2 years old when she survived the atom bomb in Hiroshima, but because of the radiation from the bomb, she developed leukemia and died 10 years later.
Community members said she represented hope and the audacity of hope that we could have a peaceful world.
The hope can be seen in the paper cranes, hundreds of them draped where Sasaki once stood.
Sadako is often draped in paper cranes, an homage to the 1,000 cranes she folded before her death in hopes of granting her wish to live. The book "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" is read by thousands of kids each year since it was published in 1977.