The World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was vandalized Thursday, with bubbles filling a fountain and “Clean hands dirty $" written in red paint.
The US government has vowed to find the perpetrator.
The Interior Department released a statement late Thursday saying: “Our US Park Police are on the scene and the investigation is ongoing. The public should know we will find the person responsible for this disgusting act.”
The fountain bubbled over with suds and the area was splattered with red and green paint.
Uniformed police and National Guard troops converged on the scene, which was cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape, keeping visitors away. One investigator in plainclothes bent over the site of the graffiti, measuring the damage with a tape measure, pictures showed.
Workers arrived to remove the graffiti, the Washington Post reported, citing Park Police officers at the site.
Dedicated in 2004, the memorial features 56 granite pillars around the edge of an elliptical plaza on the National Mall as a monument to the 400,000 Americans who died and 16 million who served in the armed forces during the conflict, according to the National Park Service.
The Friends of the National World War II Memorial, a nonprofit organization that helps maintain the site, said: “There are many places in our country for expression, debate, and disagreement. A national memorial honoring those who served and those who never returned home should never be used as a canvas for vandalism.”
The Veterans of Foreign Wars called the vandalism “an act of profound disrespect, a slap in the face to the veterans who served and sacrificed and to the families who carried that burden at home.”
The U.S. role in World War Two is largely a matter of national pride and unity even in highly polarizing times, though many Americans still debate whether the U.S. should have dropped two atomic bombs on Japan to end the war.
The World War II Memorial is just east of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on the Mall. After a botched repair job earlier this year left the pool with peeling blue sealant and green algae, President Donald Trump blamed the issues on vandalism without providing evidence.
