Nagasaki Day

9 people arrested at Trident nuclear submarine base at Bangor, marking the 64th Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

87 people participated in a vigil and nonviolent direct action against the Trident nuclear weapons system at the Trigger Avenue gate to Bangor nuclear submarine base early Monday morning .

While vigilers held a variety of banners, flags and signs calling for peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons a second group broke the yellow “caution” tape designating the “free speech zone”, and strung it across the County roadway, blocking traffic entering the base. One member of this group walked among the vehicles waiting to enter the base, offering drivers sunflowers, a symbol of nuclear disarmament. Anne Hall, 64, of Seattle,WA, Jackie Hudson, 74, of Bremerton, WA, Brenda McMillan, 75, of Port Townsend, WA, Jean Sundborg, 69, of Seattle, WA, and Alice Zillah, 36, of Olympia, WA, were arrested by Washington State Patrol officers.

Following the release of the three Federal arrestees, Jessica Artiega and Lynne Greenwald, who had already been processed and released by Naval authorities, re-entered the roadway on the County side carrying the same banner as before, and were arrested by the State Patrol. All those arrested by the State Patrol were taken to Kitsap County Justice Center in Port Orchard where they were booked and released. Veterans For Peace, Squadron 13, who brought their Peace Bus to Ground Zero Center for the weekend, which marked the anniversaries of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, picked up the arrestees after their release and returned them to Ground Zero Center.

Besides welcoming the Interfaith Peace Walk (from Los Alamos, New Mexico to Ground Zero Center) and speaking by telephone with members of the Journey of Repentance who were in Hiroshima, Japan, the weekend included Charlie Meconis speaking on Energy, Environment & Nuclear Weapons, and an engaging panel discussion with Vietnam Vet, Lawyer and Peace Activist, Brian Willson, and Ground Zero founders, Jim and Shelley Douglass.

The Trident submarine base at Bangor, just 20 miles from Seattle, is home to the largest single stockpile of nuclear warheads in the U.S. arsenal. In November 2006, the Natural Resources Defense Council declared that the 2,364 nuclear warheads at Bangor are approximately 24 percent of the entire U.S. arsenal. The Ground Zero Center for Nonviolence resists Trident, and offers education, training, and action for a world free of nuclear weapons.