• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • TP について/About
  • Topics/トピクス
    • Gender/ジェンダー
    • Globalisation/グローバリゼーション
    • Japan and Asia/日本とアジア
    • Japanese/日本語
    • Media/メディア
    • News/ニュース
    • Social Justice/社会正義
    • War and Empire/戦争&支配権力
    • Environment/環境
    • Other Stories/他の記事
  • Links/リンク
  • Contact

TokyoProgressive

Linking Progressives East and West Since 1997

東西のプログレッシブをつなぐ − 1997年設立  |  Linking Progressives East and West Since 1997

10/5 International Day Of Action To Defend Anti-War Japanese Teachers

September 17, 2007 by tokyoprogressive Leave a Comment

10/5 International Day Of Action To Defend Anti-War Japanese Teachers
by Committee To Defend Japanese Anti-War Teacher
Tuesday Sep 4th, 2007 6:27 AM

On October 5, 2007 is International Teachers Day and teachers and anti-war activists
throughout the world will be protesting the repression of Japanese anti-war teachers who
have been harrassed and are threatened with being fired for refusing to support the
militarization of the schools.

japanteachersuspended.jpg
japanteachersuspended.jpg

International Day Of Action To Defend Anti-War Japanese Teachers
All Out On Friday October 5, 2007
Stop Firings and Repression Of Japanese Teachers Who Oppose War
Over 1700 Japanese teachers have been punished and harassed for refusing to sing nationalist pro-war songs during graduation ceremonies throughout Japan's schools. In Tokyo alone, 388 teachers were subject to heavy punishment after 2004.
The effort to censor education books about the war crimes of Japan imperial government is part and parcel of the effort to remililtarize the schools and eliminate Article 9 of the Japanese constitution which prohibits war.
October 5 is celebrated internationally every year as World Teachers Day to defend teachers and oppose attacks on education and teachers. On this October 5, 2007, there will be delegations of teachers and community activists from around the world who will go to Japanese consulates and embassies to call for an end to the repression against Japanese anti-war teachers, against censoring Japanese school books and also against changing Article 9 of the Japanese constitution which prohibits war.
The US government has also played a key role in encouraging Japan to send it’s troops to the Middle East and also many US politicians go to Japan and urge it to militarize and ignore Article 9. In fact, former Japanese prime minister Nakasone who also privatized the railroads in order to break the militant rail unions in Japan said he wanted Japan to be a "aircraft carrier" for the United States.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education under pressure from the racist and nationalist Tokyo governor Ishihara has moved toward firing teachers Ms NEZU Kimiko and Ms KAWARAI Junko for their anti-war activity unless people around the world stand up to this repression. This repression and militarization is a threat to all people of the world and we urge educators, unionists, people from all communities and anti-war activists to join us on October 5, 2007.

San Francisco Picket and Delegation To Japanese Consulate
Friday October 5, 2007 4:00 PM
50 Fremont St/Mission San Francisco

For information or if you would like to endorse please contact
Committee To Defend Japanese Anti-War Teachers
(415)867-0628 lvpsf [at] labornet.org
Endorsed by International Committee To Defend Anti-War Japanese Teachers, Doro-Chiba, Transport Workers Solidarity Committee and others
http://vpress.la.coocan.jp/ http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070717i1.html
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070720a7.html
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Japan-Forced-Suicide.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Resolution To Defend Japanese Teachers Opposed To Militarization

Whereas, the Japanese people have a long history of opposition to war and Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution which prohibits Japan from developing a growing military force and militarized society along with a militarized education system and,

Whereas, the cost of war has been catastrophic for the Japanese people, the youth and education workers as well as all the people of Asia and,

Whereas, the growing drive for militarization has led to the re-writing of history books to censor the role of Japan in the 2nd WW which included acts of the use of slave labor including sex slaves in order to justify Japanese militarism and,

Whereas, the US government has encouraged Japan to violate Article 9 and to use it's military in wars in the Iraq, expansion of US bases in Japan for greater Japanese military activity in the middle east despite this constitutional clause and,

Whereas, the US government has supported the elimination of this anti-war Article 9 in the Japanese constitution in order to allow further militarization of Japan and,

Whereas, the Japanese government has railroaded the legislation of National Referendum Law to eliminate Article 9, which prohibits teachers and public workers from any movement against amending the Constitution and,

Whereas, this increased funding of the military has meant a lower funding priority for teachers and the educational system of Japan and,

Whereas, more than 1500 Japanese teachers have been punished and harassed for refusing to stand up in front of the national flag "Hinomaru" and for refusing to sing the national anthem "Kimigayo" or play the piano accompaniment in graduation & matriculation ceremonies and other school ceremonies and,

Whereas, these demands and directives instituted in the education system have unjustly violated their freedom of thought along with their freedom of conscience and,

Therefore, be it resolved this union protests the retaliation and discrimination against Japanese teachers for refusing to stand up in front of the national flag "Hinomaru" and for refusing to sing the national anthem "Kimigayo" or play the piano accompaniment in graduation & matriculation ceremonies and other school ceremonies and this union and this organization will send letters of protest of these policies and to call for their removal and,

This union calls on the Japanese and Tokyo government to stop the punishment and possible firings of Japanese teachers and act b by the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education against sisters Nezu and Kawarai and,

The organization supports the rights of Japanese teachers and all public employees to lobby against any proposed changes in the Japanese constitution and,

The organization will send this statement to the Japanese Embassy and will send a union delegation to meet with the Ambassador to outline our concerns and,

The organization will send a delegation of teachers to Japan to make an investigation of the growing danger of militarization of the Japanese education system with a report back to the next state fed convention of this and,

The organization calls on all US Congressional and government officials to oppose the change of the Japanese Constitution Article 9 which prevents the militarization of Japan and finally,

This (local or council)will send this resolution to the education unions of Japan and Education International for concurrence and to focus International Teachers Day on October 5, 2007 in support of the rights of Japanese teachers to lobby against the changes of the Japanese constitution and against repression for their refusal to stand and participate in the Hinomaru and sing the Kimigayo and finally,

This local will support actions and delegations to go to Japanese consulates and embassies around the world on October 5, 2005 to show our support for anti-war activist teachers and to oppose the militarization of Japan and will ask for concurrence by all affiliated bodies.

Filed Under: Japan News

Join the Discussion

Comment on this article or respond to others' comments.

You can post below or send to the mailing list at discuss@list.tokyoprogressive.org.

a) Please sign you name at the bottom of your comment, so that we know who wrote it.

b) To prevent spam, comments need to be manually approved.

c) Comments which are insulting, racist, homophobic or submitted in bad faith will not be published.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Search the site

Archives

Main Categories (old and most recent)

Alternative News Contributors/投稿者 creative Democracy Now Environment/環境 Featured Gender/ジェンダー Globalisation/グローバリゼーション Jacobin Japan/日本 Japan and Asia/日本とアジア Japanese/日本語 Japan Focus Japan News Korea/韓国 latest latest-j links Media/メディア Mp3 National Security Archive neoliberalism new News/ニュース Other Stories/他の記事 Social Justice/社会正義 Topics Uncategorized Video War and Empire/戦争&支配権力

Search deeper

Abe Afghanistan alternative news Bush class issues and homelessness Environmental research fukushima gaza health care Henoko human rights Iraq Iraq, Afganistan and the War on Terror Iraq and Afghanistan, opposing the wars Israel Japan Japan news English Korea labor issues Latin America Middle East military North Korea nuclear nuclear waste Obama Okinawa Okinawa Palestine peace protest protest and resistance racism/human rights radiation state crimes Syria Takae Tepco Trump U.S. War world news English ニュース/社会問題 人権 平和、憲法9条

Design and Hosting for Progressives

Donate/寄付

Please support our work. This includes costs involved in producing this news site as well as our free hosting service for activists, teachers and students. Donations/寄付 can be sent to us via PayPal or Donately. You can also click on the buttons below to make a one-time donation.




Work with us

TokyoProgressive
supports and participates in projects of like-minded people and groups directly (technical, editing, design) and not-so directly (financial or moral support). Likewise, we also welcome contributions by readers that are consistent with promoting social justice. If you have a project you would like help with, or if you would like to submit an article, link, or report on a protest activity, please contact us here.

Footer

All opinions are those of the original authors and may not reflect the views of TokyoProgressive. This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for by copyright law in several countries. The material on this site is distributed without profit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyleft 1997-present: tokyoprogressive dot org

TokyoProgressive supports and participates in projects of like-minded people and groups directly (technical, editing, design) and not-so directly (financial or moral support). Likewise, we also welcome contributions by readers that are consistent with promoting social justice. If you have a project you would like help with, or if you would like to submit an article, link, or report on a protest activity, please contact us here.

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in