Tuesday, May 30, 2006
6月の記事
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Japan & Asia-related/日本とアシア関係
君が代日の丸抗議のための罰金：２００，０００。 次は刑務所？日本は実際に民主国家ですか。
State fines teacher 200,000 for anthem-flag protest. What kind of democracy is this?
A schoolteacher who urged parents attending a 2004 graduation ceremony to remain seated during the national anthem was yesterday found guilty of disrupting the solemnity of the occasion. The Tokyo District Court fined Katsuhisa Fujita Y200,000, but stopped short of jailing him for eight months, as prosecutors had requested, on the grounds that the disruption was not severe enough. The ceremony was delayed by two minutes. Note that THIS REPORT says 90% of the graduating students then refused to stand!!! Good for them!! And shame on those who are attempting to force patriotism on kids. Shades of pre-war authoritarianism. According to the Financial Times, Hiroko Arai, “....who has been banished from teaching since she refused to sing the anthem said ‘Those in power desire to control education from above. Enforcement or coercion is inappropriate in a place of education, [which amounts to] an attempt to imprint nationalism in the hearts of children’”.
The Retrial of the Yokohama Incident: A Six Decade Battle for Human Dignity
“It is well known that Japan’s neighbors, especially China and South Korea, are unhappy at what they see as Japan’s failure to accept responsibility, apologize and compensate victims for its wartime crimes and colonial abuses. What is less well known, however, is the Japanese state’s reluctance to address the same questions of justice and human rights in the case of its own citizens who were victims of crimes committed by the prewar or wartime state. ...
”Authority is constantly trying to maintain surveillance of and exercise control over citizens. Bills such as the State Secrecy Law, Subversive Activities Prevention Law, Wiretapping Law, and most recently the Conspiracy Law have been introduced. If citizens are not sensitive to these movements and don’t raise their voices against them, an event like the Yokohama Incident might happen again.”
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A wide ranging essay on where we can and should put our energies as activists Contains 15 references, including:
-Howard Zinn: “To Be Neutral, To Be Passive In A Situation Is To Collaborate With Whatever Is Going On
-Pro-war Propaganda Machine:Media Becomes Branch of War Effort
-Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein: The U.S. Tilts toward Iraq, 1980-1984
-The Suicide Economy Of Corporate Globalisation (Monsanto)
-Sept. 11, 1973: A CIA-backed Military Coup Overthrows Salvador Allende, the Democratically Elected President of Chile
-UNCHR’s misguided “Mission to Japan” The global politics of “racialization”
-Japanese activism
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Film-maker David Rothauser has created a site specifically to obtain support for his documentary. Please note that the address for sending contributions given in the film except/interview itself is incorrect, but the one listed on his site IS correct.
For people in the US or Japan who wish to send checks (usually a bank draft from Japan), here is the correct addresss:
Please remit your contribution payable to:
The Community Church of Boston
c/o David Rothauser
39 Fuller Street
Brookline, MA 02446
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Vietnamese Agent Orange Victims Sue Dow and Monsanto in US Court
Sculpture by Vietnamese students of disabled child victims of Agent Orange
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Concert for East Timor: June 2
東ティモールからの希望の歌～ フェアトレード・コーヒー＆ＭＵＳＩＣ: ６月２日（金） 18:30－20:30（open18:00）
会場●ティーズサロン1F（渋谷区渋谷1-6-8 渋谷井上ビル１F）
TEL：03-3797-3732 ※渋谷駅から徒歩７分
入場料●1000円（東ティモールのフェアトレード・コーヒー１杯つき）
More information
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How the US limits democracy in Japan, Korea and around the world
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SAKAMOTO RYUICHI: STOP ROKKASHO!!!!
More anti-nuclear news. All here in English
・ストップ！六ヶ所再処理工場アクティブ試験！
『原子力市民年鑑2005』
JCO臨界事故総合評価会議『青い光の警告－原子力は変わったか』
原発老朽化問題研究会『老朽化する原発－技術を問う－』
第57回公開研究会「チェルノブイリ事故－20年目に視えてきたもの」（2006/3/4）［終］
チェルノブイリ原発事故20周年シンポジウム（2006/4/16）［終］
第58回公開研究会「志賀原発２号機運転差止判決－原発は地震に耐えられない－」[終]（2006/4/22）
・もんじゅ裁判
・「原子力発電の経済性に関する考察」
・原子力長期計画
・美浜原発３号事故
All here in Japanese
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From Japan Press Service/Akahata
All 9 A-bomb survivors win suit calling for their illnesses to be certified as caused by A-bomb radiation
Fingerprint requirement for foreigners entering Japan infringes on human rights
JCP publishes appeal for blocking adverse revision of Fundamental Law of Education
Foil adverse revision of Fundamental Law of Education:
It is unconstitutional to use the law to force children to be blindly patriotic
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A few more sites of interest in Japan
Oxfam Japan
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Other news and activism/その他のニュースと活動関係
Some sites of interest
Top 25 Censored Stories of 2006
Just Garments: A Worker-Organized Factory Challenges Sweatshops
Global Warming Could Be Worse Than Predicted, Research Shows
The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation denounces sanctions
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Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Putting Things in Perspective: Where to put one’s (limited) energies as an activist
The first part of this article will attempt to demonstrate the need for a healthy sense of skepticism toward mainstream journalism and how it deals with life and death issues such as Iraq. The second part will offer some cautions on pitfalls and distractions for social activists.
YOU CAN’T BE NEUTRAL ON A MOVING TRAIN
The historian Howard Zinn says that “in modern warfare, soldiers fire, they drop bombs, and they have no notion, really, of what is happening to the human beings that they’re firing on. Everything is done at a distance. This enables terrible atrocities to take place.” As a young soldier dropping bombs on French towns occupied by German forces near the end of World War II, he “did it like most soldiers do, unthinkingly, mechanically, thinking we’re on the right side, they’re on the wrong side, and therefore we can do whatever we want, and it’s okay.
“And only afterward, only really after the war when I was reading about Hiroshima from John Hersey and reading the stories of the survivors of Hiroshima and what they went through, only then did I begin to think about the human effects of bombing. Only then did I begin to think about what it meant to human beings on the ground when bombs were dropped on them, because as a bombardier, I was flying at 30,000 feet, six miles high, couldn’t hear screams, couldn’t see blood. And this is modern warfare.” (1)
(1) Reference: Howard Zinn: “To Be Neutral, To Be Passive In A Situation Is To Collaborate With Whatever Is Going On”
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/27/1350240 -
As one can see from the above reference, Howard Zinn is not saying that one should be neutral, that war is war and in war bad things happen. In fact, quite the opposite, as Zinn is the author of a book that in 2005 was made into a film narrated by his friend and neighbor Matt Damon, “You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train”. He is not afraid of telling his young history students and readers that he takes a stand on issues, though he encourages them not to take his word for things but to develop their own eyes and ears for the truth, that no-one is born with information, that we must constantly go after it. Sometimes that truth is more complex than either seeing a black and white, good and evil narrative or one that glosses over the details and concludes that in war everyone does bad things.
MAINSTREAM MEDIA: ASPLEEP ON THE JOB OR WILLFUL SELF-CENSORSHIP?
Zinn knows that people are not going to make much progress if they depend on the mainstream, corporate media for the information that will help them discover the truth, the very same media which uncritically brought the Iraq invasion into our living rooms (less than being uncritical, they even served as cheerleaders for the invasion in many cases). A media which only now, after thousands have died and when it has become safe to do so, tells its readers the things that Zinn and other activists were saying three years ago, when being critical was not yet acceptable. Like the justification for invading Iraq made by Colin Powell at the U.N. on Iraq’s pursuit of weapons of mass destruction having been based on lies and distortions. Things which may yet lead to the prosecution or even impeachment of key officials in the Bush administration. (2)
Did you know, by the way, that behind Powell was Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, but it had been covered with a cloth beforehand as it was obviously in bad taste to be seen making a call for war with a reminder of what war does to people’s lives and limbs in the background? (3)
(2) Reference: Pro-war Propaganda Machine/Media Becomes Branch of War Effort
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=3272
(3) Reference: The Lessons of Guernica
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0209-04.htm -
The kinds of questions that Zinn asks are the questions that many ask, but those voices are not being picked up in the media. Why, for example, “if one person kills another person, that is murder. But if the government kills 100,000 persons, that is patriotism. And they’ll say we’re disturbing the peace. What really bothers them is that we’re disturbing the war.”
PICKING AND CHOOSING WHAT IS CONVENIENT
It is convenient for those in power--whether government leaders or a compliant media that chooses not to look too deeply lest it uncover less flattering truths--to pick and choose when it comes to looking at history. The historian Richard Minear makes this clear in a recent interview in which he talks about his book, “Victors’ Justice: The Tokyo War Crimes Trial,” which was very critical of the trials. He notes that he “wrote it for American readers from an anti-Vietnam perspective. What the United States was doing in Indochina in the 1960s was not morally acceptable. I wrote the book because I thought the narrow-minded and self-centered thinking the United States showed in the Tokyo trial subsequently led to America’s mistake of intervening in Vietnam. It is a book of U.S. criticism directed at American readers. But when it was translated into Japanese, Japanese conservatives who refuse to accept the Tokyo trial said, ‘Aha, Minear says we were right!’ The same thing happened with ‘Taiheiyo Senso’ (The Pacific War) by historian Saburo Ienaga, who affirmed the role of the Tokyo trial, for example. It was translated into English, and American conservatives said, ‘Aha, we were right! Japan is wrong.’ “ (4)
Reference:
(4) Reference: Japan needs to face up to its war responsibility
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200605270162.html
And so we have the bizarre situation where American conservatives could applaud the left-wing Ienaga for justifying their stance that Hiroshima was a good thing (he actually opposed both U.S. and Japanese militarists), which allowed them to justify later U.S. interventions in Vietnam and other places on the basis of some high-minded principles. Likewise, Japanese rightists could point to Minear’s critique of U.S. hypocrisy in the tribunal as exoneration for their brutal reign over Asia. This is what happens when the truth is presented selectively. Going back to Iraq, the newspapers of 2003, in lining up behind Powell and Bush, or at least in sidestepping any debate over the claims made justifying war helped to keep moral issues below the radar and thus initially support for the war was high. In fact, here is a direct quote from Dan Rather: “George Bush is the President. He makes the decisions. He wants me to line up, just tell me where.” (5)
(5) Reference: The Lynching of Dan Rather
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=6261 -
In such an environment, devoid of any historical context or critical reportage, those who had read their history and knew that the weapons of mass destruction employed by Saddam against Iraqi Kurds and the Iranians were used with the tacit approval of the United States must have looked strident if, appearing in a 5-second sound-byte, they questioned the motives for the coming war. TV audiences might be forgiven for concluding that the anti-war activist was just a “knee-jerk” anti-American, given that the U.S. media had largely ignored the fact that Saddam Hussein was not a “bad guy” in the eyes of the U.S. government, a media which only now chooses to mention the atrocities, and the lies used to justify the invasion. (6)
(6) Reference: Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein: The U.S. Tilts toward Iraq, 1980-1984
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/
U.S. Had Key Role in Iraq Buildup
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52241-2002Dec29?language=printer
ALTERNATIVE MEDIA: WHAT YOU WILL (AND WON’T) FIND IN TOKYOPROGRESSIVE
While the media hides behind a pretense of objectivity, not even CBS would feel they have to give equal time to both the makers of Napalm and Agent Orange (Dow, Monsanto) and their victims, both intended ("enemy" civilians) and unintended (soldiers handling the stuff who have later come down with chemical-related illnesses). Rather, they would just as soon not look into the issues very deeply at all. Monsanto, by the way, is also one of the leading biotechnology companies (including genetically modified organisms), with a very checkered past, but most of that never gets mentioned as the media assumes it to be irrelevant or the public too incapable of understanding it. And yet certainly it is of interest and importance to know that Monsanto has not only helped to kill millions in Vietnam, supplied chemical products that enabled Hitler’s holocaust, has been in the forefront of globalization in its production of patented “terminator” seeds which must constantly be repurchased, leading many farmers to serious debt and even suicide, and much more. (7) Such stories are often carried on this site because they are rarely carried in the mainstream media.
(7) Reference: Monsanto
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Monsanto
The Suicide Economy Of Corporate Globalisation
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2004-02/19shiva.cfm
Sure, there are other viewpoints on whether Monsanto is truly an evil company. Even Albert Einstein believed that the atomic bomb was a worthwhile thing initially (though he later renounced this view), so one might be interested to read Monsanto’s justifications for its production of Agent Orange, if you could find it. Also, the pros and cons of genetic modification are still being debated, and we do not claim to know for certain if GMOs are harmful, since scientists themselves are split. But the marketing goes on at full speed, often making the claim that GMOs offer a kind of second “green revolution” for the hungry multitudes in the developing world, even as at least 25,000 farmers have killed themselves so far. It is THESE stories that we feel deserve more exposure.
Reasonable people, it is said, can disagree, and while it is true that there are often different interpretations of reality, as well as the invocation of Realpolitik justifications, such as that employed by former Secretary of State Kissinger in explaining why the U.S. bankrolled a coup on September 11, 1973 in Chile that included the murder of thousands of Chilean and other civilians (8), there cannot be two realities in my view. Even if one were to assume that the makers of these chemical weapons or the CIA in hatching the coup to protect U.S. economic interests were not inherently evil, they have clearly chosen to look the other way as their efforts produced horrendous deaths and injuries, both physical and spiritual, that have spanned generations.
(8) Reference Sept. 11, 1973: A CIA-backed Military Coup Overthrows Salvador Allende, the Democratically Elected President of Chile
http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=03/09/11/1440226
WHAT YOU WON’T FIND TOO OFTEN IN TOKYOPROGRESSIVE
Given my reluctance to be equivocal with regard to the merits of Agent Orange and CIA coups, one might be surprised to learn that I think it is crucial for social critics, particularly those of us who are engaged in so-called “alternative” media, to avoid jumping to conclusions too easily. Some of the reasons are obvious: if we are forever declaring matters to be unfair, then we had better be prepared to show why we see them as unfair. Sometimes it is a matter of being unwilling to take the time to lay out our arguments, whether because we do not choose to examine our own assumptions or because we, in some ways, take an elitist view of those who do not accept our conclusions.
We see this often enough in people who conclude that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, as was the case with some of my own relatives who supported Stalin with even more fervor because of the lives that were ruined by the disease of McCarthyism. A modern version has people from groups like ANSWER/IAC (two related sectarian organizations opposing the war in Iraq) actually defending Milosevic and Saddam Hussein. An especially perverse form of this elitism is when supposed radicals (9) will launch attacks on fellow activists. The TokyoProgressive web site has been targeted with abusive, macho-type comments from supposed radicals who accuse people like Zinn and Noam Chomsky of being in the pay of the CIA for allegedly being too soft on Israeli policies, for example. It almost sounds like some COINTELPRO (10) disinformation campaign, but I am afraid there are a fair number of conspiracy theorists out there, and no-TokyoProgressive is not interested in giving them space. You can read one such article here: (11)
(9) Reference: By radical, I am using the original meaning of someone who believes in going to the root of problems and demanding that those problems be confronted: “The state and its police were not neutral referees in a society of contending interests,” Zinn wrote in his 1994 autobiography, ‘You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train.’ “From that moment on, I was no longer a liberal, a believer in the self-correcting character of American democracy. I was a radical, believing that something fundamental was wrong in this country—not just the existence of poverty amidst great wealth, not just the horrible treatment of black people, but something rotten at the root."- Historians in the News
Tim Goodman, in the San Francisco Chronicle (Oct. 13, 2004)
(10) Reference: COINTELPRO
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cointelpro
(11) Reference: Noam Chomsky: Controlled Asset Of The New World Order
http://prisonplanet.com/articles/april2006/060406Chomsky.htm
ACTIVISM IN JAPAN: RACE AND RACIALISM
Sometimes we prefer to give space to people doing good works but not necessarily offer them unqualified support because we have problems with their particular approach. When I was involved in the anti-fingerprinting movement of the 1980s, I found it was easy to attract a certain number of supporters who did not have particularly strong commitments to human rights. This was an issue that actually involved the historical treatment of Koreans and other former colonials under both the Imperial Japanese government and the U.S. occupation, which enlisted Japan in its communist containment policies. Yet some of the people who offered us a hand had personal issues with “Japanese racism,” meaning they were suddenly aware of what it is like to be treated as an outsider, both negative and preferential (sometimes western residents of Japan get preferential treatment, which also makes this writer uncomfortable). Yet many of those quick to condemn Japan often voiced a superior attitude such as “such discrimination would never be tolerated in the U.S”. Yeah, sure. The reason why I feel confident in speaking out against racism anywhere is because it is so prevalent in my own country. Relying, as some activists do, on U.S. State Department criticisms of other countries, be they Burma, China or even Japan, is not our cup of “ocha” since the reason for our activism is the serious disconnect between the tatemae of US freedom and democracy and the deficiencies that actually exist.
And so when people try to set Japan up as a special case where racism and discrimination are concerned, they do not get my sympathy, especially since the particular species of racism in my own country is often much more harsh. But people who want you to believe there are no grounds for activism are perhaps allowing themselves to see what they want to see. Still, I would hope for better research, as well as outreach, on the part of activists. Especially if they want to enlist the support of potential allies within Japanese society, people who are perhaps not yet politicized but who are still sensitive to issues of justice and fairness.
The recent report by UN Rapporteur Doudou Diene (12) is a case in point as regards research. Though he has compiled a great deal of information which points to the need for laws and policies protecting against discrimination, he relies on some questionable sources for some of his information, such as the violence and intimidation prone Buraku Liberation league, and only a few critics not allied with the xenophobic right have ventured forth to criticize him for unwittingly doing his case more harm than good. One such critic is Bill Wetherall. One of the points he makes is the lack of any input from other buraku groups which advocate for a less racialist, more class-based view (the same debate can be found in India by some Dalit-untouchable activists), missing a significant portion of the activist community’s input. which results is a less-than-accurate conclusion on the status of buraku discrimination.
Being here almost 30 years, I have learned to differentiate between “people” and the “system” and find this society to be much less racist than it was (in the sense of mental and physical violence being visited on minorities over time), though obviously much still exists. Then again, maybe that is because of people like Wetherall, who has been very precise in his analysis of the status of minorities here, and Debito Arudou, who has been promoting and facilitating the Diene visit and has a huge website devoted to all sorts of related issues. Certainly I find that people’s consciousness has changed since 1979-very much so, though the media, seeking to sell papers, has sometimes fanned the flames of ignornance by printing false reports issued by the police on rising crime rates, along with outrageous statements by rightist politicians who, like cockroaches, never seem to stop coming out of the woodwork. (12a)
Yet, as noted above, sometimes the attempt to find a racist under every pillow seems destined to backfire since little attempt is made to enlist the understanding and support of non activists who do not buy into traditional Japanese uniqueness myths but who sometimes tell me they feel they too are being labeled too easily as racists just for having been born into a society that has yet to throw off those myths. That is one area where sites like Debito Arudou’s could be improved. Perhaps it is because he gives the impression of being on a personal crusade; perhaps it is because we cannot see the actual progress that has been made (see Wetherall’s site below, which rveals how things have, in fact changed over the years). There is also the tendency to paint with too broad a brush or, as mentioned above, to be too uncritical of some activist groups, such as the BLL. In any case, I have heard these criticisms from activists as well as non-activists, and so I think it is worth addressing.
While there is much there we support, we find too little discussion of some of the above issues, and we think many potential Japanese supporters are being lost as a result. We should also note that unlike Wetherall, whose critique of the Diene report we largely agree with, we do not think litigation, as advocated by Debito Arudou, is a particulary unsuitable medium for addressing discrimination, whether practiced by the State or by individuals. In fact, the notion that litigation is something negative has largely been created by corporate America when it suits them to hit at what they feel are trivial suits, such as the woman who was burned by hot coffee having sued McDonalds over it. But, in fact, many of the lawsuits that have been filed over civil rights issues are anything but trivial. And, in the UK, the very same people who decry frivolus lawsuits, McDonalds in this case, used the legal system to sue a pair of activists for libel when they said, among many other things, their burgers are unhealthy. (12b)
(12) Reference: UNCHR’s misguided “Mission to Japan” The global politics of “racialization”
http://members.jcom.home.ne.jp/yosha/minorities/Diene_2006_mission_to_japan.html
(search for BLL)
The burakumin debate (older but more in-depth)
http://members.jcom.home.ne.jp/yosha/minorities/FCCJ_buraku_debate.html
More (pro and con): The Diene Report on Discrimination and Racism in Japan
By Oda Makoto, Pak Kyongnam, Tanaka Hiroshi, William Wetherall & Honda Katsuichi
http://japanfocus.org/article.asp?id=556
Debito Arudou’s site
http://debito.org
(12a) William Wetherall on “Foreign Crime”
]http://members.jcom.home.ne.jp/yosha/minorities/minoritieshome.html#crime]
(12b) Fast Food Nation: An Appetite for Litigation
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0604-01.htm
McDonald’s Sends A Message With U.K. Libel Suit
http://www.mcspotlight.org/media/press/sendmessage.html
The McLibel Trial
http://www.mcspotlight.org/case/index.html
ACTIVISM IN JAPAN:FOCUSING ON THE POLICE AS AGENTS OF REPRESSION
Another issue that deserves some discussion is how activism tends to get sidetracked into battling the police and other agents of repression. As an alternative news site, we often debate where to put our energy since as the mainstream media is under-reporting the news, as well as the existence of dissent, often progressive news sites tend to become sidetracked reporting on the inevitable battles between the police and the protestors. Indeed, such news needs to get out, since clearly the police do more than just the often reported good works of keeping neighborhoods safe. And yet, without enough reporting of the context and background in which repression takes place, we lose potential allies in ordinary citizens who, by and large, oppose militarism but who have been made to fear left-wing protestors through a combination of media neglect as well as very real sectarian problems that keep people divided into factions either loyal to one political party or another, or going out of their way to declare their independence. And so the ordinary citizen is made to feel she or he has no place in any protest. (A friend who had never participated in a demonstration in Japan because of the very serious and somewhat intimidating style, was happy to participate in US anti-war demonstrations in New York because of their overall positive atmosphere and inclusiveness, which allowed people sectarian and non-sectarian alike, old and young, gay and straight, democrat, liberal, anarchist, communist or philatilist, to march together.)
Yet here in Japan, and even in other places, it is often the case that police, for no apparent reason, will obstruct or even arrest small groups of non-violent anti-war activists, a role common to police in most societies both “totalitarian” and “democratic”. When an activist is arrested in Japan, usually for one or two periods of 3 weeks each, an abhorrent and distressingly quite common procedure used in everything from extracting false confessions from murder suspects to simple intimidation of dissidents, our attention turns to attacking the actions of the police. But since the media is not there, no one is listening except those who are already reading sites such as indymedia.org. Looking at japan.indymedia.org (disclaimer: I am an indymedia volunteer), we see that this is a common focus of activists, just as it is around the world. Again, we are unwittingly drawn away from issues such as the war in Iraq itself or the increasing disparity between the haves and have nots in Japan as the police themselves become our pre-occupation. A recent example: (13)
(13) Reference: [URGENT] あこぎで好きほうだいの暴政をはねかえし、３名の仲間を取り戻そう！支援・カンパのお願い Unwarranted arrest of 3 in Mayday Demo: Demand their immediate release
http://japan.indymedia.org/newswire/display/2710/index.php
While Japan IndyMedia picked up on this story, TokyoProgressive was reluctant to go beyond this and publish an appeal for their release, probably to the dismay of some of our friends, In fact, we wanted to, but we were unable to verify enough of the details to make sure that the demonstrators were not giving the police an excuse. We were probably being too careful, but one of the things that concerns us is, as we wrote above, that not enough effort is being spent to reach out to non activists to help them see the connections between intimidating protestors through arrests and Japan supporting the US invasion of Iraq, the move to end Japan’s peace constitution, mandatory patriotic education, the diversion of economic resources away from job creation and health care and the increasingly difficult situation of huge numbers of under- and unemployed young people. The Indymedia story focused only on the immediate emeregency situation and did not do enough to get people who are not yet activists from making the connections.
We hope more people will attempt to reach out to those who are seemingly uninterested in political issues or simply afraid to raise their voices because of the way protest is portrayed in the media. This needs to be done in addition to appeals for the arrest of arrested fellow activists. To do less is probably to fall prey to what the police want in the first place: to discourage a broadening of the movement. In other words, in some sense, the people in power are happy to marginalize us, and when we take the police themselves on, we indeed do look like a fringe element.
In fact, using the police as agents of repression is nothing new and deserves to be tackled in a much more organized way. Not in the sense of urging people to take to the barricades, since it would be a revolution that few would sign on too. Instead, the role of the police--not necessary the corner patrol officer--as agents of repression, in all the many forms this takes place in Japan and other countries needs much more publicity. (14) A few examples from Japan and the U.S.:
(14) Reference: Reference: Looking into Japanese Police Corruption
http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/%7Etpgn/japan/japanesepolice.html
The Truth About False Confessions
http://www.truthaboutfalseconfessions.com/
As usual, we invite readers to send us their reactions, which may be published:
http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/index/contact/
English comments will be published here
http://tokyoprogressive.org/index/english/
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Tuesday, May 23, 2006
tokyoprogressive 6-25-06
UPDATED JUNE 23
Japan & Asia-related/日本とアシア関係
【不法なイラク戦争を拒否する合州国軍将校への支援を】Thank you Lt. Ehren Watada(2006/6/2)不法なイラク戦争に加わる命令を米軍将校としては初めて拒否することになる人物に、貴方の緊急支援と助力が必要です。既に抗議を込めた任務拒否を試みていたEhren Watada中尉は、６月７日に全国に向けた記者会見を通じて出征拒否を公にしました。On June 22, U.S. Army First Lieutenant Ehren K. Watada became the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse deployment to the unlawful Iraq War and occupation. Link in Japanese and English below.
「私は最早黙っていることが出来ないのです。大統領が私たちに「戦争完遂( stay the course)」を唱える一方で家族がバラバラになっていくのを、私は傍観することが出来ません。侵略される謂れ無き人たちに対する不法かつ反道徳的な戦争に参加することを、私は拒否します。以前は戦友たちのために現地に往きたいという気持ちがありました。然し、砲弾を撃ち込む側の一員となって殺しと破壊を更に増大させる要因とならないことこそ、最上の手段です。この戦争に反対する側の一員となり戦争を終結させたなら、全ての兵士たちは家に帰ることが出来るのです。」—合州国陸軍中尉Ehren Watada: Thank you Lt. Watada/不法なイラク戦争を拒否する合州国軍将校への支援を
Also:
SAS soldier quits Army in disgust at ‘illegal’ American tactics in Iraq/【イラクでのアメリカのやり方は「不法」として、SAS隊員が軍を除隊】
US Miltary Destroying Ramadi, Impose Media Blackout/ラマディを破壊する米国軍、報道管制を課する
East Timor: the coup the world missed”>East Timor: the coup the world missedOn 28 April last, a section of the East Timorese army mutinied, ostensibly over pay. An eyewitness, Australian radio reporter Maryann Keady, disclosed that American and Australian officials were involved. On 7 May, Alkatiri described the riots as an attempted coup and said that “foreigners and outsiders” were trying to divide the nation. A leaked Australian Defence Force document has since revealed that Australia’s “first objective” in East Timor is to “seek access” for the Australian military so that it can exercise “influence over East Timor’s decision-making”. A Bushite “neo-con” could not have put it better.....The opportunity for “influence” arose on 31 May, when the Howard government accepted an “invitation” by the East Timorese president, Xanana Gusmão, and foreign minister, José Ramos Horta - who oppose Alkatiri’s nationalism - to send troops to Dili, the capital. Pilger shows how it is, once again, all about oil. The coporste media, again of course, is missing the story.
反戦ネットワーク/ストップ浜岡原発＠ブログJapan-U.S. military alliance increasing its aggressive nature
More Stories from TANAKA NEWS
自衛隊イラク撤退の意味
【2006年6月20日】 イギリスが日本やオーストラリアと協議し、日本のサマワ撤退計画が浮上したのは、ブレアの訪米が失敗し、米政界が撤退否定に向けて議論をしていたときである。ブレアの訪米の失敗により、イギリスがアメリカを協調主義に引き戻す計画は失敗で終わり、英日豪はアメリカより先に撤退に動くことになった。
文明の衝突と東チモール
【2006年6月17日】 冷戦時代には、インドネシアは「反共」でアメリカの味方であり、左翼的傾向が強い東チモールのゲリラ組織は味方ではなかった。しかし、冷戦後の次の５０年戦争となるべき「文明の衝突」では善悪が逆転し、インドネシアはイスラム教徒の国なので「敵方」であり、東チモールは住民の９０％以上がキリスト教徒なので「欧米側」である。東チモールは、オーストラリアに守られつつインドネシアから独立を勝ち取ることで「イスラム包囲網」の一部となった。だが、話はここで終わらなかった・・・
アメリカの「第２独立戦争」
【2006年6月13日】 アメリカは、領土的には１７８３年にイギリスから独立している。しかし、アメリカの世界戦略の中に、イギリスにとって都合が良い半面、必ずしもアメリカ自身の国益に沿っていないものが多いことを考えると、アメリカは特に第二次大戦後、イギリスによって傀儡的に動かされているような印象を受ける。ヒットラー敵視や冷戦（ソ連・中国敵視）など、正義感の強いアメリカ人の世論がイデオロギー的に動かされて採られた戦略は、いずれもイギリスに大きな利益を与えている。
つぶされるＣＩＡ
【2006年5月30日】・・・ハイデンがＮＳＡ長官として行った「失策」は、うまくやろうと思ったのに失敗したのではなく、故意にＮＳＡの機能を潰したのであり、これからＣＩＡ長官になったら、こんどはＣＩＡの機能を潰しにかかるのではないか、と推測される。ハイデンを長官に迎えるにあたって「もうＣＩＡは終わりだ」という声がＣＩＡ内部から出ていると報じられている。
Nurse with baby forced to retire for being unable to work midnight shift
A Week of Israeli “Restraint”
n Israeli discourse, Israel is always presented as the side exercising restraint in its conflict with the Palestinians. This was true again for the events of the past week: As the Qassam rockets were falling on the Southern Israeli town of Sderot, it was “leaked” that the Israeli Minister of Defense had directed the army to show restraint....
The Great Grain Robbery by Agribusiness Multi National Corporations
Indian people’s health is being sacrificed to create markets for U.S agribusiness....[its] food sovereignty is being given up to hand over India’s food system to global agribusiness....The corporate hijack of wheat is a recipe for increasing farmers suicides, inviting famine and public health and environmental hazards.
Japan’s Official Record of Chinese Forced Labor
These days, NHK’s programming schedule is long on nature programs and favorable coverage of the imperial family. The problem of Japanese abducted by North Korea also gets plenty of air time, while shows highlighting Japan’s atomic victimization have become an August ritual. The reputation of NHK as the media entity least likely to challenge the nation’s conservative government was cemented last year, amid revelations that the public broadcaster had bowed to political pressure in sanitizing a 2001 program about military sexual slavery....
....The very future of NHK (Nihon Hoso Kyokai, or the Japan Broadcasting Corp.) has grown unclear. A string of fraud and embezzlement scandals has led 30 percent of households to withhold payment of the mandatory viewer fees that fund the 56-year-old organization. NHK’s own reform plans include steep staff cuts, while a government panel has recommended eliminating some of the eight television and radio channels. The network’s annual budget requires Diet approval.
NHK and its attitude toward Japanese war responsibility were far different in 1993. During the May 17 broadcast of its “Close Up Gendai” program, NHK exhibited the long-suppressed “Foreign Ministry Report” (FMR) that details the brutal wartime system of Chinese forced labor operated by the state and private companies.
More Stories from JanJan, Japan Press, Nikkan Beria, etc.
UPDATED JUNE 23
君が代日の丸抗議のための罰金：２００，０００。 次は刑務所？日本は実際に民主国家ですか。State fines teacher 200,000 for anthem-flag protest. What kind of democracy is this?
A schoolteacher who urged parents attending a 2004 graduation ceremony to remain seated during the national anthem was yesterday found guilty of disrupting the solemnity of the occasion. The Tokyo District Court fined Katsuhisa Fujita Y200,000, but stopped short of jailing him for eight months, as prosecutors had requested, on the grounds that the disruption was not severe enough. The ceremony was delayed by two minutes. Note that THIS REPORT says 90% of the graduating students then refused to stand!!! Good for them!! And shame on those who are attempting to force patriotism on kids. Shades of pre-war authoritarianism. According to the Financial Times, Hiroko Arai, “....who has been banished from teaching since she refused to sing the anthem said ‘Those in power desire to control education from above. Enforcement or coercion is inappropriate in a place of education, [which amounts to] an attempt to imprint nationalism in the hearts of children’”.
The Retrial of the Yokohama Incident: A Six Decade Battle for Human Dignity
“It is well known that Japan’s neighbors, especially China and South Korea, are unhappy at what they see as Japan’s failure to accept responsibility, apologize and compensate victims for its wartime crimes and colonial abuses. What is less well known, however, is the Japanese state’s reluctance to address the same questions of justice and human rights in the case of its own citizens who were victims of crimes committed by the prewar or wartime state. ...
”Authority is constantly trying to maintain surveillance of and exercise control over citizens. Bills such as the State Secrecy Law, Subversive Activities Prevention Law, Wiretapping Law, and most recently the Conspiracy Law have been introduced. If citizens are not sensitive to these movements and don’t raise their voices against them, an event like the Yokohama Incident might happen again.”
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A wide ranging essay on where we can and should put our energies as activists Contains 15 references, including:
-Howard Zinn: “To Be Neutral, To Be Passive In A Situation Is To Collaborate With Whatever Is Going On
-Pro-war Propaganda Machine:Media Becomes Branch of War Effort
-Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein: The U.S. Tilts toward Iraq, 1980-1984
-The Suicide Economy Of Corporate Globalisation (Monsanto)
-Sept. 11, 1973: A CIA-backed Military Coup Overthrows Salvador Allende, the Democratically Elected President of Chile
-UNCHR’s misguided “Mission to Japan” The global politics of “racialization”
-Japanese activism
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Film-maker David Rothauser has created a site specifically to obtain support for his documentary. Please note that the address for sending contributions given in the film except/interview itself is incorrect, but the one listed on his site IS correct.
For people in the US or Japan who wish to send checks (usually a bank draft from Japan), here is the correct addresss:
Please remit your contribution payable to:
The Community Church of Boston
c/o David Rothauser
39 Fuller Street
Brookline, MA 02446
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Vietnamese Agent Orange Victims Sue Dow and Monsanto in US Court
Sculpture by Vietnamese students of disabled child victims of Agent Orange
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Concert for East Timor: June 2
東ティモールからの希望の歌～ フェアトレード・コーヒー＆ＭＵＳＩＣ: ６月２日（金） 18:30－20:30（open18:00）
会場●ティーズサロン1F（渋谷区渋谷1-6-8 渋谷井上ビル１F）
TEL：03-3797-3732 ※渋谷駅から徒歩７分
入場料●1000円（東ティモールのフェアトレード・コーヒー１杯つき）
More information
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How the US limits democracy in Japan, Korea and around the world
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SAKAMOTO RYUICHI: STOP ROKKASHO!!!!
More anti-nuclear news. All here in English
・ストップ！六ヶ所再処理工場アクティブ試験！
『原子力市民年鑑2005』
JCO臨界事故総合評価会議『青い光の警告－原子力は変わったか』
原発老朽化問題研究会『老朽化する原発－技術を問う－』
第57回公開研究会「チェルノブイリ事故－20年目に視えてきたもの」（2006/3/4）［終］
チェルノブイリ原発事故20周年シンポジウム（2006/4/16）［終］
第58回公開研究会「志賀原発２号機運転差止判決－原発は地震に耐えられない－」[終]（2006/4/22）
・もんじゅ裁判
・「原子力発電の経済性に関する考察」
・原子力長期計画
・美浜原発３号事故
All here in Japanese
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From Japan Press Service/Akahata
All 9 A-bomb survivors win suit calling for their illnesses to be certified as caused by A-bomb radiation
Fingerprint requirement for foreigners entering Japan infringes on human rights
JCP publishes appeal for blocking adverse revision of Fundamental Law of Education
Foil adverse revision of Fundamental Law of Education:
It is unconstitutional to use the law to force children to be blindly patriotic
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A few more sites of interest in Japan
Oxfam Japan
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Other news and activism/その他のニュースと活動関係
Some sites of interest
Top 25 Censored Stories of 2006
Just Garments: A Worker-Organized Factory Challenges Sweatshops
Global Warming Could Be Worse Than Predicted, Research Shows
The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation denounces sanctions
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