San Jose Vietnamese community reeling following statue theft

San Jose leaders are pledging a swift response following the brazen weekend theft of a portion of a war memorial housed at the Vietnamese Heritage Garden.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, District 7 Councilmember Bien Doan, whose district includes the garden located in the Kelley Park neighborhood, and several police officials gathered at the site Monday to review the theft’s aftermath. Their declarations came one day after police discovered thieves had torn down half the statue — erected in 2024 to commemorate the historic alliance between the U.S. and South Vietnam in the Vietnam War — and dragged it to a nearby trail area, which caused significant damage.

“This was not just an attack on a public monument, but it’s also an attack on the heart of a community that’s already endured so much,” Doan said at the garden. “This monument carried deep meaning. Many of us came here to the city as refugees after the fall of Saigon. We came here after losing our country, leaving behind our homeland, loved ones, career and entire lives.”

The statue, titled “Thank You America”, took more than a decade of effort to be realized and cost roughly $500,000, depicted a South Vietnamese soldier and an American soldier standing side by side. The South Vietnamese soldier is the portion that thieves tore off its pedestal, apparently with the help of vehicles, police said. The statue appears to have been dragged out of the park, with debris and tracks carving a path all the way to an exit gate.

“I am just completely outraged,” Mahan said Monday. “There will be accountability, and we will take further measures to secure the garden and make sure this never happens again.”

Officers with the San Jose Police Department responded to the site to investigate the theft shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday. Police managed to locate the statue later that afternoon near the intersection of the Five Wounds and Coyote Creek trails.

No arrests have been made, and police have not publicly identified any suspects, but an investigation is ongoing, officers said.

“We have made meaningful progress in this, and will continue to do so until we find the people responsible for this and have them be held accountable,” Assistant Police Chief Ali Miri said at the garden.

In addition to the military ties it memorializes, the monument celebrates the bonds of fellowship that many Vietnamese refugees have found in San Jose in the decades since the Vietnam War, when its aftermath forced them from their homes. Nearly 150,000 people of Vietnamese heritage live in San Jose, the largest Vietnamese population of any city worldwide outside of Vietnam.

Doan raised questions about the city’s efforts to secure the memorial site. He said that while a mobile camera police unit had been stationed to monitor the area, SJPD recently reassigned the operation to cover the ongoing FIFA World Cup events taking place across the city. Doan added that earlier promises to protect the site with high resolution security cameras and security lighting also never materialized.

The monument had already been vandalized in March, when someone cut into the leg of the statue, Doan said.

The theft has also sent shockwaves through the community.

Victor Pham, a veteran of the South Vietnamese military who immigrated to the U.S. in 1991, called the crime painful and said it is hard to make sense of what motive may lie behind the theft.

“We have two statues standing parallel: the Vietnamese veteran soldier and American soldier. We fight together and now have somebody take out the Vietnamese soldier,” Pham told San José Spotlight. “There is some intention there, but I don’t know what.”

Miri said while the investigation has not yet found any indication the theft represents a hate crime, all investigative options will be kept open.

Residents expressed shock and outrage outside San Jose’s Vietnamese community as well.

“It feels like D7 has been making strides in our public places, and now this is destroyed,” Alie Victorine, president of the District 7 Leadership Group, told San José Spotlight. “This was something that was coming along little by little, and I’m sure our neighbors here are feeling very unsafe.”

Contact Keith Menconi at [email protected] or @KeithMenconi on X.