University and high school students in anti-war demonstrations

About 500 university students from all over Japan held the National College Students Peace Rally on April 19 at Shiba Park near Tokyo Tower and marched six kilometers in demonstration holding decorative anti-war messages.

In the adopted appeal, the students criticized the United States and Britain for militarily occupying Iraq and called for a U.N.-led Iraq reconstruction. They also called on the country's college students to develop peace movements on their campuses.

A 19-year-old student from Kobe University in western Japan said, "It's good to be able to share the wishes for peace with many other students. I've heard that the wartime legislation will crack down on anti-war rallies like we are holding today. I really want to block it."

High school students

On April 20, nearly 1,000 high school students participated in a peace parade in the downtown district of Nagoya City.

With a vinyl-made mock missile bearing the slogan, "NO WAR", they appealed to pedestrians to support the peace movement.

A 17-year-old female student said, "On TV, I saw an Iraqi boy who lost both arms in the bombings and an infant with a critical head injury. I can't stand it! I want to tell as many people as possible that those who suffer the most from war are always the weak."

Okinawans' die-in

In Okinawa on the same day, about 5,000 people carried out a die-in near the U.S. Kadena Air Base and chanted, "Stop using Okinawa as a stepping-stone for the U.S. war of aggression."

Akamine Seiken, a House of Representatives member, spoke on behalf of the Japanese Communist Party.

At the Kadena base gate, Christian priest Taira Natsume said, "We must keep calling for peace here until the U.S.-British troops completely withdraw from Iraq." (end)