Center for Japanese Ransacked by Vandals

Vandals broke into a Japanese community center in Norwalk, ransacked the building and defaced it with graffiti, which said “Go back to Asia” and included racial slurs, authorities said Friday.

Officials of the South East Japanese Community Center discovered the damage Thursday evening, said center spokeswoman Kathy Imahara. The vandals broke a window and painted a blackboard, desk and windows.

Sheriff’s detectives were investigating the incident, but no one was in custody, Lt. Ron Wagner said. It was the third incident of vandalism at the center in the past two weeks, Imahara said. Center officials initially thought the first two incidents may have been pranks, but now view them as “a hate crime,” Imahara said.