Thousands Line Wilshire to Protest Nuclear Threat

Thousands of people holding placards protesting the threat of nuclear war peacefully lined Wilshire Boulevard from downtown Los Angeles to the sea at noon today to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Earlier in the day, seven protesters were arrested after they painted ash-white human silhouettes, depicting the victims of nuclear holocaust, in public places, authorities said.

Three men and two women, all in their 30s, were arrested around 4:30 a.m. for investigation of misdemeanor vandalism after officers spotted them painting “human figures and the word ‘Hiroshima’ ” on “sidewalks and private property” in Westwood Village and adjacent areas of Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles Police Sgt. Nick Barbara said.

Pair Arrested at UCLA

About the same time, a man and a woman were arrested by UCLA campus police for investigation of malicious mischief after they were found in similar activity on the sidewalks at the south end of the campus, university spokesman Harlan Lebo said.

Peter Lacques of the Alliance for Survival said those arrested were among 100 people who used an easily removable, water-soluble “chalk-like” paint to produce more than 1,200 silhouettes on sidewalks “from the San Fernando Valley to Seal Beach.”

The silhouettes show “people in various postures--walking, strolling down the street; some are people in death throes,” Lacques said. “Some are animals--cats and dogs--because animals would also perish in a nuclear war. . . . The figures are reminiscent of the markings police make when a person has been murdered.”

‘Political, Artistic Message’

Activists wanted to express “a political and artistic message about the dangers and the imminence of the possibility of nuclear war,” Lacques said, adding that the Los Angeles-area effort was part of a project “occurring in over 300 communities around the world, in over 20 countries.”

The “Hiroshima Vigil” along Wilshire Boulevard, which also featured a rally at the Federal Building in West Los Angeles, ended at 2 p.m. with the ringing of church bells throughout the city. The event was sponsored by the Nuclear Information Center and more than 100 anti-war groups throughout Southern California.

Tens of thousands were killed when the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima 40 years ago today, ushering in the Nuclear Age and bringing an end to World War II.