Rally greets peace walk

Vancouver alderman Bruce Yorke, one of some 70 who com-
pleted two-day, 51km peace walkathon from downtown Van-
couver to the Peace Arch, raises his arms in victory, as walk-
@rs enter the park to the cheers of the crowd.

U.S. ban

Japanese peace activists don’t
Teally know why the Reagan ad-
ministration refused entry per-
mits to more than 200 of their
number who arrived in New
York to attend the opening of
the second special disarmament
conference at the United Na-
tions last week.

But they strongly suspect it’s
because the U.S. government
doesn’t want the world forum to
hear about the consequences of
nuclear attacks, said seven rep-
resentatives of the Japanese
Council Against A and. H
Bombs at a press conference in
Vancouver Tuesday.

About 1,400 delegates from
various Japanese peace organi-
zations planned to attend the
Session and participate in the
mass demonstration that drew
Over one million people in New
York Saturday. They bore a pe-
tition bearing about 28 million
signatures — representing one
out of every four Japanese citi-
zens — and containing a four-
point demand for world disarm-
ament.

_ “We think the United Na-
tions should reflect the voice of
all the world’s people, which is
guaranteed by Article 71 of the
UN charter. We think everyone
should be able to attend the UN
and we will continue to protest
this injustice \to the American
State department,”’ said peace
activist Kenichi Mori through
translator Shozo Tsuijama.

_ U.S. immigration announced
It had refused some delegates
because of alleged ‘‘communist
affiliations.” But the small dele-
8ation, sponsored here by the
Coalition for World Disarma-
Ment, also consisted of a Bud-
dhist priest, Rev. Youshin

Osoi, and survivors of the
atomic bombings of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki in addition to a
Japanese Communist Party
Member.

_Itis the presence of these sur-
vivors — among them, Yutaka
Kubo of Nagasaki and Jokumi
Ishii of Hiroshima — that the

bars UN

door to Japanese
A-bomb survivors

American government wished
to prevent, because of the dam-
ning evidence they could give on
the devastation caused by the
U.S. nuclear attacks, said the
delegation.

“Tt is clear that the Reagan
administration, in refusing visas
to us, was afraid that move-
ments against nuclear weapons
and for disarmament in Japan,
the United States and Europe
would be united to form a
strong coalition. . . (so) 81 Jap-
anese delegates decided to visit
Canada (Montreal, Toronto
and Vancouver) for solidarity
and exchange of opinions,”’ the
group said in a release.

Hundreds have died every
year since the initial blasts that
took countless thousands of
lives in the bombings of the two
Japanese cities in 1945. They die
suddenly when the radiation
contamination they have car-
ried over the years critically re-
duces the red corpuscle count in
their blood, said the Hiroshima
and Nagasaki survivors.

No exact count can be given
of those killed immediately by
the explosions since all records
were destroyed along with
them, said Kubo, a construction
union leader from Nagasaki.

Kubo was workingina tunnel
5.2km away from the blast cen-
tre when the atomic bomb hit
his city on Aug. 9, 1945, sending
high velocity winds raging
through the ruins. He returned
to his house to find it levelled,
and managed to dig his mother
out from under the rubble. She
died five years later of radiation
poisoning. :

Ishii was asleep in his building
which was some distance from
the blast that levelled most of
Hiroshima. The building and
those inside survived. Not so
fortunate were those outside,
whose ‘‘skin was hanging from
their bodies. They died a few
days later,”’ he said.

“It’s clear the U.S. govern-
ment doesn’t want these surviv-

ors to explain their experience,”

said Kubo.

SEAN GRIFFIN

TRIBUNE PHOTO—

Kenichi Mori (r) points to passport page where U.S. visas, ae
granted by American embassy officials, were later cancelled.

Behind him are Shozo Tsuijama (I) and Rev. You

shin Hosoi.

DISARMAMENT

Continued from page 1

approval, and received it as the
thousands responded with a
thunderous ‘‘aye.”’

‘Lhe chairman of the Scientists
against Nuclear Arms organization
and other speakers set the deter-
mined tone for what was
simultaneously a festive occasion,
with several musical acts by an
often equally colorful audience.

One group under the banner
‘Youth Against the Monsters”’
paraded around the perimeter of
the grounds sporting a variety of
costumed participants, some bear-
ing small cardboard missile replicas
and other props.

A somewhat more conservative-
ly dressed president Jim Kinnaird
of the B.C. Federation of Labor
brought greetings from the pro-
vince’s organized workers and
said, ‘‘It’s great to see the people of
two nations with one voice saying,
‘Stop the nuclear madness.” ”’

Kinnaird said the U.S. Navy was ~

clearly ‘‘threatened’? by a huge
gathering for disarmament so close
to the Trident submarine base at
nearby Bangor, Wash., ‘‘but then
it’s existence represents a threat to
every living thing for hundreds of
miles around it.”’

The almost empty American
side of the park gave testimony to
Kinnaird’s words. Permission to
use that side was withdrawn in the
eleventh hour by park officials who
had just two days prior reversed an
initial decision to deny use of the
grounds following pressure from a

, Navy agent.

Kinnaird went on to note, ‘‘the

_ B.C. labor movement is passing

with greater conviction more and
more resolutions for nuclear disar-
manent.”

The throng broke into cheers as
they learned that governments were
also joining the growing expression
for peace when news that the B.C.
legislature voted unanimously for
disarmament Friday was announc-
ed by rally co-chairman Carmela
Allevato of the End the Arms Race
committee. A’ similar response
greeted American chairman Barry
Evans when ‘he told of the
unanimous decision for peace
taken by Tacoma city council last
week.

The peace message continued in
the wide variety of entertainment
offered by the five musical groups.
‘Spokesman Paul Yee of Van-
couver’s Katari Taiko said his
group’s “Japanese talking drums’’
were used in medieval times for
communication, likening the pro-

~_ cess to the communication involv-

ed:in the peace struggle.
The Vancouver-based topical

U.S., Canada.

folk quartet, Ash Street, noted that
1982 marked the first of four an-
nual concerts the noted American
black singer Paul Robeson gave at
the Peace Arch. They sang a few
bars of Robeson’s ‘‘No More Auc-
tion Block for Me”’ before laun-
ching into the sixties peace classic,
“Blowin’ in the Wind,’’ which
echoed back to them on the
thousands of voices of people
gathered in the park.

The ‘‘hands across the border’
spirit of the gathering was
represented by David Cadman and
Carol Goldenberg. The two
presidents of, respectively, the
Vancouver and Seattle United Na-
tions Associations presented joint
resolutions calling for a nuclear
weapons freeze and demanding the
Canadian government urge an end
to all weapons testing at the UN
disarmament session.

A prolonged standing ovation
went to the approximately 70 mar-
chers who set out from Vancouver
and other Lower Mainland centres
the previous day. The group, which
included Vancouver aldermen
Harry Rankin and Bruce Yorke,
walked the 51-kilometre distance to
raise money for the summer’s
roster of peace events.

‘I’m here because the aggressive
militaristic stance of my govern-
ment is wrong and I’m here to op-
pose it,’ declared Bishop Melven
Talbert of the Methodist Chruch in
the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

“It is insanity to cut off funds for
social needs and spend it on the
arms race,”’ said Talbert, noting
that even the former commander
of the U.S. forces in Vietnam,
Robert MacNamara, and U.S. Ad-
miral Jerry Miller have called for
an end to further stockpiles of
nuclear weapons.

“There is a tidal wave of public
support for what we’re doing here
today,”’ said William Klassen, a
noted Mennonite theologian.
Along with Talbert, he participated
in the civil rights marches in the ear=

ly sixties lead.;by Dr. Martin .

Luther King, Jr. .

PACIFIC: TRIBUNE—JUNE 18, 1982 Page 3

BARRY EVANS (I), CARMELA ALLEVATO . .. rally co-chairs from

> SPS4 —acci

TRIBUNE PHOTO—SEAN GRIFFIN

4

““We should go from here today
with a challenge to Reagan and
Thatcher. to sit down with their
enemies. Don’t ever underestimate
your own power. President (Lyn-

don) Johnson wasturfedoutofof- __

fice for not ending the Vietnam war

soon enough,”’ he said.

Dr. Christine Cassell of the
Portland, Oregon branch of the
Physicians for Social Responsibili-
ty said the total firepower expended
in World War II was three
megatons, ‘‘and today we have
single bombs with 20 times that
power.

“These weapons are a much
greater threat to our life than any
enemy could ever be,’’ said the
physician after outlining the effects
a nuclear attack would have on the
park and the surrounding areas.

Cassell also noted the meteoric
rise of the peace movement:
“‘There have been lots of times do-
ing peace work when I’ve felt pretty
lonely. Ino longer feel that way to-
day,”’ she said.

The massive crowding and park-
ing problems prophesized by park
and police officials failed to
materialize. Parking was available
for several hours in an area im-
mediately adjacent to the park, and
the RCMP allowed those arriving
later to park along the highway
leading into the _ international
grounds.

‘A press release issued by the
RCMP the day before the event
warned of huge traffic tie-ups. This
has caused some critics to suggest
the release was responsible for a
lower attendance than anticipated
by the organizers.

Meanwhile, a June 12 ‘‘Festival
for Peace’’ rally drew about 300
people to Polson Park in Vernon.
They heard speakers Rev. Malcolm
Galbraith of the United Church
and Debbie Helf from the Coali-
tion for Nuclear Responsibility in
Kamloops.

The event was organized by the
Vernen World Disarmament
Coalition, which consists of five
member organizations.

Oy SMU. — JPUGIA: SUAS

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