Original Meaning of Peace Symbol

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I’ve seen the peace symbol many, many times over several decades without really knowing the story behind it. I’ve heard religious leaders complain about the peace symbol being an anti-Christian image that shows the Christian cross turned upside down with broken arms. I’ve even heard one man refer to the peace symbol as that of THE anti-Christ. This sounded a little heavy to me; especially when I knew good Christian people who used the peace symbol.

In 2004 I saw an interview, on TV, of the man (Gerald Holtom) who is credited as being the designer of what has become an international symbol of peace. Holtom said that he wanted to create a symbol for nuclear disarmament that would be very simple, easy to recognize and reproduce. The symbol intentionally was not patented so anyone could use the image free.

Holtom’s symbol is made up of simplistic versions of the two semaphore letters “N” and “D”. These letters are the initials of “Nuclear Disarmament.” I was surprised when I heard Holton explain the real meaning behind what has morphed into an international peace symbol


This is a copy of the original drawing
made by Gerald Holtman
.


Letter "N"

Letter "D"
These drawings of a sailor using semaphore flags comes
from a copy of a 1917, U.S. Navy Bluejackets Manual


When I was in the Navy (1961-1965) I often saw signalmen communicating with just their arms using no flags at all.

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