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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Tuesday, April 11, 2006
April entries
Contribute to TokyoProgressive by sending your articles and announcements to us. Also, if you want to be interviewed for our video and audio section (educators, activists, artists) or if you would like us to carry your interview of individuals and groups doing good works, again please contact us/連絡・問合先
Japan & Asia-related/日本とアシア関係
Other Asian Stories below:
(1) PARC自由学校2006受講生募集中！(2) 根津公子さんの停職「出勤」日記 (3) The Diene Report on Discrimination and Racism in Japan (4) Korean Peace Village Targeted by Private and Police Thugs (5) AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL-South Korea: Elderly farmers forcibly evicted for US army base (6) Ginoza village assembly chair: We want to see birds fly in, not U.S. military planes
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Other News and Activism below:
(1) “Israel Lobby” (2) Seymour Hersh on Attacking Iran (3) Selective Attacks on Islamic Law and the Hypocrisy of the West (4) Honor crimes actually strengthened by occupation and a continuing legacy of colonialism
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MAIN STORY: An interview with film-maker David Rothauser on “Hibakusha: our life to live”
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE Also, find out how you can help.
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Subscribe to this and other podcasts here.
David Rothauser was in Japan in the summer of 2005 and may be back this summer again in connection with his documentary scheduled for release in Japan and the U.S. later this year, probably around December. In the U.S. look for it on PBS. Our cooperation consisted of making initial contacts with various people and groups active in the anti-nuclear and peace movement as well as facilitating communication between the Japan-based documentary producer Yu NEGORO, the Nagasaki coordinator Naoko GOTO, the main translator, Tomoko KAJIKI, the America-based crew (Julie O’NEIL, Werner GRUNDL, and David), and the US-based coordinators/translatorsWakana YOKOTA and Naomi TORII.
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The Diene Report on Discrimination and Racism in Japan
Some positive, some negative in this review of a UN Rapporteur’s vist to Japan. Part of the problem, as William Wetherall (one of the panelists most critical) seems to suggest is sloppy work based on the fact that one sectarian and often reactionary activist group, BLL, did not allow the writer access to other groups who have a more class-based view of inequities past and present. From the introduction: Japan Focus has asked several Japan-based writers to respond to the Diene Report. Oda Makoto who has been campaigning against war, injustice and discrimination for over half a century, welcomes the report’s findings while pointing out that all developed countries have similar problems. He hopes the report will push debate beyond the national point-scoring that he believes is all too prevalent. The second-generation Korean essayist Pak Kyongnam provides by far the angriest analysis of the pervasiveness of Japanese discrimination, one informed by her own experience. She believes the report will be heartily welcomed by Koreans in Japan. William Wetherall, a veteran commentator on Japan, by contrast, finds the Diene report fatally flawed by, among other things, the special rapporteur’s lack of familiarity with the country he was investigating. Tanaka Hiroshi, who has long worked to protect the rights of foreigners, views the report as a welcome step in the long march toward a racism-free Japan. He notes the positive effect of Japan’s previous adoption of UN conventions in extending human rights. Journalist-author Honda Katsuichi, who has addressed issues of discrimination against the Ainu in Japan and American Indians, welcomes the report but warns that in the absence of vigorous treatment of the report by major media it will have little effect.
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Read the full Wetherall Counter-Report
Korean Peace Village Targeted by Private and Police Thugs
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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE
AI Index: ASA 25/001/2006 (Public) News Service No: 067
17 March 2006
South Korea: Elderly farmers forcibly evicted for US army base
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Ginoza village assembly chair: We want to see birds fly in, not U.S. military planes
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Other news and activism/その他のニュースと活動関係
There are some leftists I know who seem obsessed with what they see as an obsession by other leftists with people like Noam Chomsky (I agree ANY obsession is not a good thing). But in attacking the obsession they seek to paint those with nuanced views on Israel and Palestine as “Zionist apologists”. Some websites go so far as to accuse Chomsky and his friends of being CIA agents or in the pay of Israel, and they come close to sounding like closet rightists with their Jewsish conspiracy theories as they end up hiccoughing over whether the “Israel lobby” controls US foreign policy or U.S foreign policy is the problem. Thankfully, even leftists who the above conspiracists see as being on opposte sides on this so-called question actually agree with one another who controls who is less important than the fact that the murderous policies of the U.S. and Israel are an affront to the Paestinian people and humanitarian values. Some comments from various people: link
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The Iran Plans, by Seymour M. Hersh
The Bush Administration, while publicly advocating diplomacy in order to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon, has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack. Current and former American military and intelligence officials said that Air Force planning groups are drawing up lists of targets, and teams of American combat troops have been ordered into Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups. The officials say that President Bush is determined to deny the Iranian regime the opportunity to begin a pilot program, planned for this spring, to enrich uranium.
READ THE ARTICLE HERE
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Also:
Washington Mulls Iran Attack
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Selective Outrage by Sonali Kolhatkar and James Ingalls
Daily media reports over the case of Afghan Christian convert Abdul Rahman have revealed a sudden concern over Afghanistan’s repressive human rights environment. But routine human rights reports of the ongoing oppression of Afghan women, suppression of the media and underlying Western complicity have barely been noticed.
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‘Honor Crimes’: A MADRE Position Paper
“Honor crimes” are sometimes assumed to be sanctioned by Islam since they occur most commonly in the Middle East. But while perpetrators of “honor crimes” often cite religious justification for their acts, these crimes are not rooted in any religious text. “ Since the US bombing of Afghanistan in 2001, the Bush Administration has resurrected the hackneyed colonial notion that Western intervention is intended to “save” Muslim women from their oppressive societies. Few Muslim women believe this (the line is really intended for people in the US). Women in Muslim countries know that their work against “honor crimes”—and for women’s rights generally—has always been undermined by European colonialism and, more recently, by US intervention.
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Saturday, March 18, 2006
March 19 Stories
Contribute to TokyoProgressive by sending your articles and announcements to us. Also, if you want to be interviewed for our video and audio section (educators, activists, artists) or if you would like us to carry your interview of individuals and groups doing good works, again please contact us/連絡・問合先
Japan & Asia-related/日本とアシア関係
MAIN STORY (below): KIMIGAYO AND THE HINOMARU? JUST SAY NO!
Other Asian Stories: Release Korean Human Rights Activists; Bashing Gender Equality,講演会「WTO香港からどこへ？～グローバル化と世界貿易」; 西パプアの人々に対する秘密戦争: ジョン・ピルジャー;Iwakuni residents say ‘No’ to U.S. forces relocation; Korean Forced Laborers; Inequality and Japanese Education; Yomiuri and Asahi Editors Call for a National Memorial to Replace Yasukuni; After Kyoto: Japanese firms rush to cash in on gas emission reductions; The Nago Mayoral Election and Okinawa’s Search for a Way Beyond Bases and Dependence; Mitsubishi, Historical Revisionism and Japanese Corporate Resistance to Chinese Forced Labor Redress…
Other News and Activism: WATER: Activists, Global Forum Do Not See Eye to Eye; RIGHTS: U.N. Creates New Watchdog Over U.S. Opposition; AGRICULTURE: Social Movements Call for “New Agrarian Reform;”
OUR MAIN STORY
“If Germany did this they would call it what it is: Nazism"-school teacher
In the 17 March 2006 issue of The Independent, “Japan cracks down on rebel pupils who refuse to sing,” David McNeill talks about the heavy-handed authoritarianism used against students and teachers who refuse to sing the nationalist anthem and stand for the Japanese flag at school ceremonies. There is another way to look at it, however, as hundreds have already been disciplined, meaning that the spirit of resistance is alive and well in Tokyo. One could argue that the harder xenophobes like Gov. Ishihara push, the more people will push back.
日の丸／君が代門だいについて日本語いろいろなあるけど、たとえば:君が代問題：不起立の女性教諭を処分−−都教育庁。
However, many are not so optimistic about the spirit of resistance in Japan. One such person is ODA Makoto, who--in an IndyMedia interview with Japan’s Brian Covert--lays blame squarely on the press for much of the apathy towards issues such as war and peace that one finds on the streets of most cities among the post-war generation. If he is right, we can understand the desperation of the nationalists with their flag and anthem rules. Hopefully it will backfire and a new generation of anti-authoritarianism will unwittingly be spawned by the very people seeking to force Japan’s young to march in lock step with its increasingly beligerant attitudes toward Koreans, Chinese and other former colonials as well as its greater collaboration with George Bush and Tony Blair’s death machine in the Middle East.
So what can YOU do if you are a student or a parent who does not want to see your kid forced to obey rules that have nothing to do with learning to think and everything to do with learning NOT to think?
Some pretend to be sick, the braver refuse to stand, and some even wear peace ribbons to school ceremonies. (When this writer was at student at John Adams High School in New York, we were set upon by members of the football team, apparently encouraged by their pro-Vietnam war coach, and so it brings back fond memories to see a new generation learning to say “NO!” to power even if their numbers are relatively small.) A few brave people like music teacher, Sato Miwako sued the government after she was suspended for refusing to play the anthem on her piano. But the authorities are not getting the message, or perhaps they hope their strong-armed tactics will stop the resistance from growing. One retired teacher has already been arrested for encouraging people not to stand up.
While the number of people protesting has decreased, there is some hope that the increasingly brutal crackdown against those who continue to resist will ignite a fire in those who have until now stood helplessly by, sparking greater resistance. In this light you can see why history textbooks have been censored by the very same people behind the forced patriotism; if kids knew what evils Japan had done in their name in the past, they too would refuse to stand up and sing praise to an Emperor system which caused such misery to Japanese and non Japanese alike for so many years.
There is another hope. Legal scholars say there is no legal obligation to sing the national anthem, and kids have legal rights too (maybe!). In an article one year ago, Eriko Arita of the Japan Times quotes law professor Yoshifumi Tawara of Rissho University as saying that the curriculum guidelines have no legal power over the content of education that students receive, noting that “while ‘Kimigayo’ is legally recognized as the national anthem, no law obliges teachers to force students to sing it”. This is also true for paying NHK fees, by the way.
Finally, Norimitsu Onishi writes in an article from just over a year ago on the punishments metered out for refusing to obey the orders on the song and flag. Noteworthy is an exchange between a rightist politican and the current Emperor on the notion of forcing kids to be patriotic, which seems to be a contradiction in terms. It seems that this Emperor is himself not being patriotic enough in the eyes of those nostalgic for Japan’s dark days of fascism.
Meanwhile, McNeill, in a letter to a Korean web site makes some interesting observations, this time in the context of a dispute between Japan and Korea over Dokdo/Takeshima. (What you call it depends on whose country’s media you read, just more evidence confirming ODA Makoto’s premise that the media --and probably both the media here and in South Korea--are not interested in the real issues of life and death, war and peace. They are just playing the nationalist card.) As McNeil says, “for us gaijin (foreigners) here in Japan, the depth of feeling in these disputes with Korea and China over what look like rocks in the middle of the ocean can be difficult to grasp, so as I often do in cases like this- I turned to my neighbors to gauge popular opinion”.
And what was his discovery? That the average citizen couldn’t care less about country-country reivalry. He gives as evidence that ‘the majority of Japanese oppose changes to history textbooks that whitewash the past with thousands of teachers, unionists and others fighting a magnificent campaign against the New History textbook which ended up being used in just 0.01 % of Japanese junior high schools’. He also notes how hard it has been for the LDP--thus far--to change Article 9 of the Constitutiom, something they have been trying to do for the last half century. And Japanese people are overwhelmingly, if not vocally, opposed to sending troops the war in Iraq. Hopefully he is right, because as seen above, the State is employing ever more forceful methods to achieve compliance. It is no accident that the very same people who support the right wing “Tsukurukai” textbook are those trying to force kids to stand for the flag and anthem.
Not just kids being forced to obey
日本の新聞においては、私が次のトピックに関してそれをめったに見つけることができませんでした。長崎の政府の国家主義者は、原子爆弾犠牲者の政治思想を検閲しようとしました。原子力、イラク、アメリカの軍事基地などについて話すべきでないとき、彼らはそれらを伝えました。結果は原子爆弾犠牲による憤慨でした:
被爆体験：講話“規制”撤回を 市民の会、平和推進協に申し入れ ／長崎
It is not just the kids who are being whipped into line by latter-day versions of the thought police of another era. In Nagasaki, a "city-funded peace group here has asked atomic bomb survivors to keep mum on thorny political issues, including Emperor Showa's role in World War II and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine". This according to Kazuyo NAKAMURA in the Asahi newspaper.日本の
In the article, we learn that the Nagasaki Foundation for the Promotion of Peace has warned Hibakusha to steer clear of a number of issues, claiming in the face of bitter crticism by the atomic bomb victims that it is for reasons of “effectiveness” in getting the peace message across, rather than some kind of censorship. And what issues are the hibakusha supposed to avoid talking about?
-Responsibility of Emperor Hirohito for World War II
-Koizumi’s visits to the openly revisonist/rightwing Yasukuni Shine
-Proposed revisions of the Constitution’s war-renouncing Article 9
-The Self-Defense Forces’ mission in Iraq
-Legislation to prepare Japan for a military attack
-The introduction of school history textbooks that China, South Korea and many Japanese educators say whitewash Japan’s militarist past.
-Nuclear power generation, the environment and human rights issues
Human rights issues? Yeah, sure! And what else but a human rights issue is it when politicians and bureaucrats attempt to silence those whose sickness and hardships are the direct result of a fanatically rightist colonial policy that led the U.S. to engage in wholesale murder with its two atom bombs, a country which is now ironically pushing Japan to remilitarize and make Japan an even bigger part of its “sphere of infkuence”. Even though Japan’s rightists claim that they want a home-grown Constitution instead of one ‘imposed on them by the victor nation in World War II”, the fact is that it is to this victor nation, the U.S., that Koizumi and company are beholden to on every issue from the import of questionable food products tainted with GM organisms, mad cow or agricultural chemicals, to nuclear proliferation, the war on the citiziens of Iraq, the neoliberalist detsruction of jobs and job security, and so much more. And now, in the name of being a modern, democratic nation, like its big Uncle Sam, Japan is going back down the road of repression and historical coverup. Talk about ironies.
Release Korean Human Rights Activists
Bashing Gender Equality: Establishing a System that Skews the Population on All Sides: from a year ago, but relevant today. Here is an editorial from the Japan Times this past week.
講演会「WTO香港からどこへ？～グローバル化と世界貿易」2006年3月31日
Iwakuni residents say ‘No’ to U.S. forces relocation
Japan Focus
Recent stories include:
Wijers-Hasegawa: Korean Forced Laborers: Redress movement presses Japanese government 02/28/06
Iwasaki: Open the Door—Japan ‘s Policy of Exclusion of Refugees 02/22/06
NOMI: Inequality and Japanese Education: Urgent choices 02/19/06
Wakamiya: Yomiuri and Asahi Editors Call for a National Memorial to Replace Yasukuni 02/19/06
Masaki: After Kyoto: Japanese firms rush to cash in on gas emission reductions 02/17/06
Mccormack: The Nago Mayoral Election and Okinawa’s Search for a Way Beyond Bases and Dependence 02/17/06
Underwood: Mitsubishi, Historical Revisionism and Japanese Corporate Resistance to Chinese Forced Labor Redress 02/11/06
McNeill: Enemies of the State: 02/10/06
Part-timers call for decent jobs
Other news and activism/その他のニュースと活動関係
Inter Press News Agency: News from the Developing World
Recent stories: WATER: Activists, Global Forum Do Not See Eye to Eye, RIGHTS: U.N. Creates New Watchdog Over U.S. Opposition, AGRICULTURE: Social Movements Call for “New Agrarian Reform”
The New Standard
Recent stories include:
* Iraqi residents say bodies in video from U.S. raid
* Ecuador calls emergency to quell Indian protest
* Popular suspicions linger over Nigerian census
* More than 3,000 families flee sectarian conflict
* Brazilians wonder: Where’s the reform?
* African abortion laws a ‘silent war waged against women’
* Darfur attacks overwhelm peace gorce, U.N. report
* Inuit see signs in dramatic Arctic thaw
* Gaza rations food as Israel cuts supplies
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Feb 7 News
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J A P A N
http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/index/weblog/comments/feb7-2006-news-japan/
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Anti-Nuclear News Japan/原子力資料情報室のNews
書籍・論文 : 『原子力市民年鑑2005』発行
書籍・論文 : 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』（再入荷）
Ken Masuoka’s Translations
「対テロ戦争」の核心には「テロ」の馬鹿げた定義がある
「対テロ戦争」の核心には「テロ」の馬鹿げた定義がある
イラク・ファルージャ最新情報は『ファルージャ2004年4月』ブログへ
Debito Arudou
マクガワン氏人種差別訴訟
THE STEVE McGOWAN COURT DECISION
A LOSS FOR HIM, A BAD PRECEDENT FOR EVERYONE
LABOR NEWS
レイバーネット日本のニュース
From Nambu/NUGW and General Union
Female on throne could marry foreigner, Hiranuma warns
Court rules English language school Nova billed student illegally
DOES ECC OWE YOU MONEY?
Japanese union members of IHT/Asahi Shimbun are full-time workers! They should be recognized as such and treated fairly.
Fighting Unfair Dismissals at the ASAHI/INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
Read more
Tokyo Metropolitan Kokusai High School Union of Foreign Teachers
University Teacher Union
Sophia University Union
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J A P A N
http://www.tokyoprogressive.org/index/weblog/comments/feb7-2006-news-japan/
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I N T E R N A T I O N A L
READ ALL HERE
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DEMOCRACY NOW
EXCLUSIVE: National Security Agency Whistleblower Warns Domestic Spying Program Is Sign the U.S. is Decaying Into a “Police State”
Democracy Now! in Doha...The Story Behind the Other Downing Street Memo Where Bush Told Blair He Wanted to Bomb Al Jazeera
Media Channel
Media Incitement Inflames the Middle East
Common Dreams
Kurt Vonnegut: A Requiem for the USA
‘All the other species are dying and so will we. I’m whistling as I walk past the graveyard… whistling as beautifully as I can’
ZNET
Hamas and Palestinian Democracy
Opposition to the Vietnam war included many anti-war songs, and that is a good reason to include links to songs from that era as well as some from some even newer. if you of any good songs being written about Iraq, let us know:
Antiwar songs
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I N T E R N A T I O N A L
READ ALL HERE
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Friday, January 27, 2006
Japan-related News/日本に関連するニュース
沖縄のプロ軍事基地候補勝利
Pro Military Base Candidate Wins in Okinawa
Read more
East Timorese Demand Justice for Repression
Which Japan Was Also responsible For
日本は、東ティモールの抑制を支援しました。東ティモール人人々は公正を求めます。
Read more
Japan Aided Dili Massacre
日本はジリ大虐殺を援助しました
Read more
Singapore Newspaper: Koizumi’s Obstinacy Could Isolate Japan: Yasukuni and Asia
シンガポール新聞:小泉のYasukuni問題についての頑固さは日本を孤立させることができました。
Read more
Peace and Justice/平和と公正
Hamas Victory
The media says the victory of the militant Hamas group in Palestinian elections is a bad thing. Some commentators point out that the pro-occupation policies of Israel and the United States are responsible for the rise of Hamas.
メディアは、パレスチナの選挙での攻撃的なハマス・グループの勝利が悪いものであると言います。何人かのコメンテーターは、イスラエルとアメリカの占領政策支持がハマスの上昇の原因であることを指摘します。
Read more
Mother and Peace Activist, Clare Grady, Sentenced in Federal Court
イラクとの戦いを止めようとした母親は刑務所に投げ込まれます。
Read more
Vietnam War Veteran Also Jailed
ベトナム戦争のベテランも刑務所に入りました
Read more
先住人々について/Indigenous Peoples News
US Native People Take Land Dispute to UN
米国の在来人々は国連に土地論争を持っていきます
Read more
Bolivia: Indigenous Leaders and Women Head Government
ボリビア:固有のリーダーおよび女性主要部統率
Read more
WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Indigenous People Demand More Central Role
世界の社会フォーラム:先住人々はより中心的な役割を要求します。
Read more
‘War on Terror’ Causes Exodus From Pakistan’s Tribal Areas
「恐怖との戦い」は、パキスタンの種族エリアからの退去を引き起こします
Read more
遺伝子組み換え作物@: 「自殺種子」は、自作農業の死を綴るかもしれない、と国連の会が伝えました。
GM Agriculture: ‘Suicide Seeds’ Could Spell Death of Peasant Agriculture, UN Meeting Told
Read more
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
UPCOMING ACTIVITIES/下記活動は今後数週間に起こるでしょう
March in March:
March 5 is Job Security for Foreigners Day 2006
More than 90% of foreign workers in Japan are hired on fixed-term contracts, leaving them vunerable to dismissal or non-renewal. Last year, over 300 people took to the streets in Tokyo to demand a stable work environment, free from illegal dismissals, unpaid wages, or discrimination. Demonstrations also took place in Fukuoka; this year, the action will expand to include Osaka and Hokkaido. To get involved, contact Louis Carlet at carlet-AT-jca.apc.org, or phone 03-3434-0669.
In Tokyo
Sunday, March 5, 2pm-5pm Miyashita Koen, Shibuya
More....
Monday, December 12, 2005
December 2005 Postings
LATEST STORIES
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Search/ 検索
記事も随時募集/Send us an article!
ADDED December 13, 2005
JAPANESE (UN)DEMOCRACY
Locking peace activists away for more than two months, as Japan has done in the case of several citizens who distributed anti-war literature to a Self-Defense Forces housing project, which has now been approved by the morally bankrupt Tokyo High Court, is certainly evidence that the Japanese government is on the same page as that of the more open repressive governments it pretends to disdain.
Articles and links here
IRAQ
Harold Pinter on U.S.-U.K (and Japan by default) War Crimes
The Nobel Prize winner did not mention Japan by name, but he included those who went along with the Bush-Blair deceptions and helped to prop up the lies.
Art, truth and politics
Pinter`s speech at the prize ceremony
Note that a story in which former British parliementarian Tony Benn, Pinter and more than two dozen others submitted war crimes charges to both United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and British legal authorities has been deemed non newsworthy by most press outlets. TokyoProgressive has written to major news organizations asking them why they have seen fit not to print the story. That story is here.
Robert Fisk on journalism, war, terror, good/evil and “democracy.. delivered by tanks & helicopters”
WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION PROTESTS IN HONG KONG
Understanding the Anti-WTO Protests
From APEC to WTO: trajectories of protest in Korea and East Asia
Our world is not for sale!
by Vandana Shiva, scientist and glabalization activist
Chinese/English Links:民間監察世貿聯盟
Many more links inside
CULTURE
Is Europe Western?
Writer TAWADA Yoko’s essay on nation, region, identity, orientalism: Several years ago a new law was passed in Japan decreeing that the Japanese flag was to be raised at every ceremony taking place at schools and universities in the country. It determined the exact size of the flag. ..The law insisted that the flag was to be raised in the middle of the stage where it could be seen by everyone...The Academy of Foreign Languages in Tokyo… raised the national flag as instructed by the law, with one small difference: it also raised a further hundred and ten flags from other countries.....
ENVIRONMENT
Worse Than Fossil Fuel: Biodiesel: the most carbon-intensive fuel on earth
Over the past two years I have made an uncomfortable discovery. Like most environmentalists, I have been as blind to the constraints affecting our energy supply as my opponents have been to climate change. I now realise that I have entertained a belief in magic....In 2003, the biologist Jeffrey Dukes calculated that the fossil fuels we burn in one year were made from organic matter “containing 44 x 10 to the 18 grams of carbon, which is more than 400 times the net primary productivity of the planet’s current biota."(1) In plain English, this means that every year we use four centuries’ worth of plants and animals....The idea that we can simply replace this fossil legacy - and the extraordinary power densities it gives us - with ambient energy is the stuff of science fiction....
ADDED December 3 2005
Japan’s Peace Constitution/映画 日本国憲法
Japanese Americans and the Making of U.S. Democracy During World War II
Okinawa and the Revamped US-Japan Alliance嘘とごまかしの重ね塗り/Masuoka Ken’s latest posting
The Bush Plan to Bomb Al-Jazeera: Press Freedom or Freedom to Bomb the Press?
(Also see The War on Al Jazeera)
How many people have died in Iraq?
Power Politics, the LDP and Willing Masses (Kato Shuichi)
Unit 731 and the Japanese Imperial Army’s Biological Warfare Program
Hu Jintao’s Strategy for Handling Chinese Dissent and U.S. Pressure
Other recent articles from Japan Focus are here:
Japan’s Deadly Game of Nuclear Roulette
http://japanfocus.org/article.asp?id=460
Japan’s Hidden Arms Trade
http://japanfocus.org/article.asp?id=459
Japan’s Kamikaze Pilots and Contemporary Suicide Bombers: War and Terror
http://japanfocus.org/article.asp?id=458
Compensating Colonial Lepers, Slave Laborers and Hibakusha: Troubling Legacies and Evolving Standards of Postcolonial Justice in Japan
http://japanfocus.org/article.asp?id=457
Family Ties: The Tojo Legacy
http://japanfocus.org/article.asp?id=445
田中宇の国際ニュース解説
http://tanakanews.com/
Check out, also:
Alternative Links (Set encoding to Shift-JIS) dealing with these Japan-related and world issues from the recent past: Militarism, Japanese police, Immigration, Unemployment, Balkans, East Timor, Food, Environment, Kosovo, Labor, Latin America, Media, Health and Environment, etc. (some articles may be unavailable as links change over time)
TOKYOPROGRESSIVE SECTIONS
(1) Latest: Latest site-wide changes in English Also a Japanese listing.
(2) Blogging: Our blog plus best of other blogs
(3) Creative: Poetry, music, etc.Registered members can submit contributions as well.
(4) Japan News: News/Opinion
(5) World News : News/Opinion
(6) Links: Past stories of interest on Japan, Asia and the world, organizations and websites involved in social and political activism, etc. Readers can submit links too.
EXCLUSIVELY READER CONTRIBUTED SECTIONS
As noted above , we have both English Reader and Japanese Reader weblogs that are available to registered members initially via the contact page. Note that both readers and editors contribute to the Links and Creative sections.
News Headlines from THE NEW STANDARD
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Announcement
This is to announce the publication of the translation of “Learning to Abolish War”.
It was originally compiled by the TC team with Dr. Betty Reardon. The Japanese version was translated and published by Akashi-shoten, with
the title “Senso wo Nakusutame no Heiwakyoiku”, and costs 2800 yen.
Mr. Asakawa has several copies. If you wish to have discount price please contact Mr. Asakawa
).
Its contents (in Japanese) and a cover photo is on his web page at:
http://www.sainet.or.jp/~kasa/GCPEJ/kit.html
or order by Amazon by above site.
The original can downloaded from the following sites:
http://www.haguepeace.org/resources/book2/English1.pdf
http://www.haguepeace.org/resources/book2/English2.pdf
Thursday, October 06, 2005
October and November 2005 Postings
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FOR TOKYOPROGRESSSIVE READERS
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LATEST STORIES
ADDED NOVEMBER 14
Buy Nothing Day: 無買 デー」今年も開催！消費をもう一度考える・行動する日
Bush in Japan Protests 「反ブッシュ」ムーブメントの盛り上がり
International Green Network Newsletter #53-1
including:
(1) BAN TERMINATOR SEEDS JOIN THE GLOBAL CAMPAIGN
(2) U.S. BEEF STILL BANNED IN JAPAN
(3) TECHNOLOGY AND TOTALITARIANISM
(4) ENVIRONMENTAL JOB ANNOUNCEMENT
ADDED OCTOBER 24
Asahi Shinbun fires labor union members. See
Asahi Shimbun is anti-labor
Latest from Asia Watch
Koizumi’s Kingdom of Illusion, Why China’s Workers are Losing Their World, The Kashmiri tragedy, A Very Lonely Japan, People Power: Have Okinawan protests forced Tokyo and Washington to rethink their base plan?
All are here
Latest from Japan Press Service
All are here
ZNet: Iraq, Europe, MidEast, U.S., Participatory Economics, Labor, Race, Repression and more
All are here
Inter Press Asia
All are here
Labor News in Asia
From NUGW, Zen-Toitsu, etc.
From the New Standard (Well researched stories)
All are here
TOKYOPROGRESSIVE SECTIONS
(1) Latest: Latest site-wide changes in English Also a Japanese listing.
(2) Blogging: Our blog plus best of other blogs
(3) Creative: Poetry, music, etc.Registered members can submit contributions as well.
(4) Japan News: News/Opinion
(5) World News : News/Opinion
(6) Links: Past stories of interest on Japan, Asia and the world, organizations and websites involved in social and political activism, etc. Readers can submit links too.
EXCLUSIVELY READER CONTRIBUTED SECTIONS
As noted above , we have both English Reader and Japanese Reader weblogs that are available to registered members initially via the contact page. Note that both readers and editors contribute to the Links and Creative sections.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Latest Postings as of Early September
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FOR TOKYOPROGRESSSIVE READERS
You can register as a member over on the left side of the main page or right here and be able to (1) post in the forums and (2) get email announcing the latest news. You can also write for TokyoProgressive in the Reader Sections in English or Japanese by sending mail to us with your first article. We will send you instructions telling you how to send articles automatically.
LATEST JAPAN-RELATED STORIES
Some of the most recent Japanese stories include:
ADDED SEPT 1
The Japanese Media, the Comfort Women Tribunal, and the NHK Affair
Press Freedom on Trial in Japan
The Emperor and the Japan-U.S. Relationship
Peak Oil-ピーク・オイル：石油争乱と２１世紀経済の行方
Ultra Right Taking Charge in Changing Japan
EARLIER STORIES
韓共催キャンドルイベント, JOINT KOREA-JAPAN CANDLE MESSAGE FOR PEACE, Japanese activist sites, Hirsohima-the story that wasn’t, Hiroshima Ex-Mayor Opposes U.S.-Japan Nuclear and Iraq Policies, Yasukuni Visits, Japanese Court Again Rejects Germ Warfare Damages, Acknowledges Crime Itself and many others. Click a story to read it and leave comments. Japanese stories go all the way back to 2002.
OTHER STORIES
ADDED SEPT 1
Middle East in Conflict From the New Standard, including (1) Israeli Terror Compensation Rules Treat Jew’s Victims Differently, (2) Israel to Take West Bank Land for Settlement Barrier, (3) Gaza Disengagement, Resistance Continue Amid Tragic Incidents and more
Environment and Health Also from the New Standard, including (1) Anti-immigrant Propaganda Scapegoats Undocumented Californians, (2) Apparently part of the pattern recently dubbed “the greening of hate,” another group opposed to immigration has come on the scene using spurious reasoning to turn people against undocumented immigrants, (3) Gitmo Captives Say Medical Personnel Approved, Participated in Abuses and more
EARLIER STORIES
Introducing Radical Voice of East Asia, Arundahti Roi Essay on Tide and Ivory Snow and Empire, Seeds of Death, Tsunami in Indonesia, and Recent Stories on Tsunami, North Korea, Koizumi Era, Minamata, Toyota Suicide... all the way back to 2000. Again, you can click any story and leave a comment or post in the forum after becoming a member. And don’t forget that members may, on request, write stories for publication.
TOKYOPROGRESSIVE SECTIONS
(1) Latest: Latest site-wide changes in English Also a Japanese listing.
(2) Blogging: Our blog plus best of other blogs
(3) Creative: Poetry, music, etc.Registered members can submit contributions as well.
(4) Japan News: News/Opinion
(5) World News : News/Opinion
(6) Links: Past stories of interest on Japan, Asia and the world, organizations and websites involved in social and political activism, etc. Readers can submit links too.
EXCLUSIVELY READER CONTRIBUTED SECTIONS
As noted above , we have both English Reader and Japanese Reader weblogs that are available to registered members initially via the contact page. Note that both readers and editors contribute to the Links and Creative sections.
