The Rafu Shimpo
From the Associated Press
January 12, 1990
Los Angeles Japanese Daily News (in English)
259 South Los Angeles Street, Los Angeles Calif. 90012
--photo by Yukikazu Nagashima
[photo, not shown here, captioned:]
Eternal Fire -- Judy Imai (left) of Global Walk for a Livable World and Kaz
Suyeishi , representative of the Southern California Chapter, Committee of
American Atomic Bomb Survivors, light the eternal fire monument with a
flame that was used to commemorate victims of the Hiroshima bombing in
World War II. The ceremony , held last Sunday, hosted about 200
participants as actor John Voight, star of the film "Coming Home,"
addressed the crowd about the horrors of war.
Flame from Hiroshima Gathering Held at Campus Monument
Santa Barbara (AP) --- Actor Jon Voight spoke to about 200 people attending
a ceremony to light an eternal fire monument with a flame that was used to
commemorate victims of the Hiroshima atomic blast.
The star of "Coming Home," a film dealing with surviving soldiers of the
Vietnam War, spoke Wednesday against the horrors of war as students and
others watched the ceremony on a grassy knoll at the University of
California, Santa Barbara, said campus spokeswoman Joan Magruder.
The fire was lit at a ground-level monument, which was a gift from UCSB's
class of 1969. There is usually a fire burning at he monument unless wind
gusts blow it out, Magruder said.
The flame used to light the monument originated from an August 6, 1959,
gathering in Hiroshima, the Japanese city on which the first atomic bomb
was dropped August 6, 1945, during World War II, said university
spokeswoman Margaret L. Weeks.
The ceremony was conducted by the Mesa School, a nonprofit organization
in nearby Isla Vista headed by David Crockett Williams.
A telephone message left at the organization after business hours was not
immediately returned.
The gathering focused on "messages about global survival in a spiritual
unity summit on nonviolence," a news release from Williams stated.
"The idea of the ceremony is to bring the minds of the people into harmony
and to make the eternal flame a peace monument," Williams said.