Later I learned the circumstances of the change in schedule. Last night Fuji had a dream that we should go to a vigil in front of the UN. At 5:30 a.m. he had called some of the monks into his bedroom. They discussed Fuji's dream and his plan. I understand that even a few of the monks had voiced opposition to the plan and expressed a need to rest. We had had just one day of rest since we left DC.

We ate some corn flakes, hurriedly. Then we decided that we could not continue to be directed about like this, without some discussion. A meeting was held, attended by more than a hundred people. We learned that the monks had planned to vigil outside the UN for the next two days also. These days had also been scheduled as rest days. Our next rest day would be Sunday, June l3th. We thought this was very generous of the monks, seeing that the walk was over on June l2th. In the meeting we decided that an alternative bulletin board would be established to publicize other events in NYC concerning disarmament. Also, it was decided to have a party tonight to celebrate our arrival in NYC. A party had originally been scheduled for tonight but had been cancelled when some of the monks expressed opposition.

I left after the meeting and took a subway to the U.N. The vigil was outside the U.N. building at the Swords into Plowshares Plaza. It was similar to the vigil outside the White House except that this was not a fast. And this time we were more numerous, more than 300.

The peace walk did not have a permit for the vigil; the plaza had been reserved by Artists for Survival, which had several displays there, but they had given us permission, asking us to let them have the plaza from noon to one. Of course we agreed.

Around noon we got up to leave the site. The few police there tried to prevent us from leaving. Vice President George Bush, at the US mission to the UN a few blocks away, was planning to leave the mission soon.

When the monks learned that Bush was at the US mission, we at once made plans to walk there for an hour vigil. The police were unable to stop us and faced an unexpected security problem. Bush had to stay in the mission an extra hour while additional security forces were brought in. After a while cops were everywhere. Police barricades were put in place, sharpshooters placed on top of the UN building, ambulances parked across the street from the mission. Secret service agents were among us. Bush's limo was backed across the sidewalk to the steps of the mission. We had arrived at noon; around one Bush made his hasty exit. It took him less than three seconds to walk from the door of the mission to the rear door of the limo, surrounded by about a half-dozen Secret Service agents. He had to walk right in front of the monks.

After Bush left we returned to the vigil site in front of the UN. The coincidence of the Bush vigil had been an affirmation of Fuji's dream last night.

After the vigil, we returned to the church and had supper. Then it was announced that a party would be held so people from the different walks could get acquainted. This evoked a two-hour shouting match in the large church cafeteria beween those who wished to follow the original schedule and those who wished to have a party. The debate meant that now there would be time for neither the party nor the scheduled reports -- a handful of hotter heads had seen to it that we would have a free evening.

After a call from New Orleans, Morishita and I had a chance to talk. He apologized for not being more accessible since the arrival in Washington; for various reasons, the monks had needed to close themselves off -- threatened by the size of the walk while needing to keep control of a march they had started two years ago. We said goodbye.

Later, John Machino connected me with a Newsweek reporter with whom I talked for an hour. She was very interested in stories I told and said Newsweek would do features on the June l2th rally next week, including an article on the peace walk. (A few days later, Israel invaded Lebanon. Newsweek did only a two-page article on the peace rally, the largest political demonstration in U.S. history, with a single paragraph about the peace walk.)

   June l0, Vigil in front of the U.N.
There was no argument about vigilling this time, and we walked the seven miles from the church. No one had told the police of our walking, but we were using the sidewalks so no parade permit was necessary. Still, so many people crossing the streets so early in the morning presented a real traffic problem. Soon many motorcycle police came to escort us, stopping traffic at intersections.

At first the police were upset with us for not giving them advance notice but soon everything was going smoothly and they relaxed. One Black policeman who rode near me was supportive. He expressed his hope that a million people would rally on Saturday. He had joined rallies during the Vietnam War, was called crazy, but turned out to be right. He sped off, giving the peace sign.

Other police acted more traditionally, maybe remembering yesterday's Bush affair. They didn't want us returning to yesterday's site and escorted us to Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, fairly isolated and not visible from the UN nor to passing traffic. At the Plaza, about thirty police officers set up police barricades around us and the monks reacted immediately, stopping the march rather than trying to cross the barricades. They circulated among us, discreetly telling us to leave in twos and threes and go to yesterday's site. Soon the police found themselves surrounding an empty plaza; we had all assembled in front of the UN, and TV crews from all three networks were with us. Not wanting a mass arrest before Saturday's rally, the police let us stay.

I saw Pamela Blockey O'Brien, who was serving as lobbyist to the United Nations for an NGO. We went for a cup of coffee to talk, starting with some problem areas of the walk. She told me then of the NAAWP letter (I learned there were a number of such letters) and her call to the FBI, as described above (March 28).

She could translate what the NAAWP people were saying: "We are at the bottom of the pile. Now you are elevating blacks and Japanese. Stop or we'll stop you." They planned a gigantic meeting as the walk approached North Carolina. So she had to call the FBI ("They had been monitoring the walk quietly but I had to make it official! I tried to explain to the walkers the great care they had to take, but I feared it might not be enough...after one of your wrong turns, the man who set you straight was an FBI guardian!") She had written every mayor after the NAAWP messages started coming, explaining the international incident if anything should happen to those monks. Hence many of the police escorts, which some walkers definitely did not like.

Next we talked about Sam, and Pamela said she had not been able to verify that he had even been in the Navy. Clearly Sam had lied to us about important facts, and it now appeared that Pamela's decision that he leave the walk had been right. Still, given the information they had, I believe the walkers made the right decision in Richmond.

She told me of people who had planned for months to entertain walkers -- then walkers claimed their liberty and went elsewhere individually. I remembered. The mutual respect of guest and host is strained when the guest is so tired he really does not want to meet the host!

And now there were left few areas of disagreement between the walkers and Pamela. I had always been appreciative of her herculean efforts. She had worked with the march for months before it started, and since then long hours daily. Her reimbursement had been not even a postage stamp and she had run up a phone bill over two thousand dollars. Some of her wry anecdotes dealt with this: "I found you hosts where I didn't know ANYbody. I'd get on the phone to (say) the Pass Christian, Mississippi long distance operator. She recognized the name of Hiroshima. `Well, some monks from Japan are leading people who are walking to New York to ask all the United Nations to get rid of all those atomic bombs. Can we find those peace walkers a place to stay when they get to Pass Christian?' `Oh, yes, ma'am. Let me see. Umm, well I'm sure the Baptist Church or the Catholic Church, one or the other, or... we'll find those boys a place...I was in Jay-pan one time...'"

Her efforts had made the southern route of the World Peace March the most successful route. The coordinator of one of the other routes had given up after a few weeks and the walkers had been left to themselves. They had to select walkers to go ahead as an advance team, responsible for arranging housing, meals, press conferences, programs, etc. They could not produce results equal to those our effective central organization did. I had seen how our passage had united peace groups in North Carolina; Pamela was in position to have seen transformations all along our route, such as new groups in Athens and from as far away as Oak Ridge. The other routes could not match ours in such visible results.

Pamela had an appointment with an official at the United States mission and left while I went back to the vigil. In the afternoon I went to the UN square for the presentation of signatures on a disarmament petition. Now, 35,000,000 Japanese had signed this petition and it weighed two and a half tons. The Japanese delegation to SSD-II presented it to United Nations officials. Afterwards I had coffee and sandwiches with Joy, who had become interested in writing up the walk for a magazine.

Back at the vigil, Julia and Carster walked up to me, two of those we had left under those painful circumstances in Alabama. We embraced. I learned that they and Neils had spent most of the spring in Mexico, where Julia had gotten hepatitis and been hospitalized. They were warmly greeted by Morishita, Nagase, and Sakamaki, and all made plans to meet at the War Resisters League office tomorrow. But I couldn't keep that appointment and the WRL phone was busy whenever I tried to call and I couldn't leave a message. Julia and Carster were engaged and planned to be married in Denmark. go to page 54