Activities in opposition to wartime legislation develop nationwide

As the three ruling parties are rushing to get the contingency bills passed through the House of Representatives on May 15, citizens' actions were developing nationwide in opposition to the wartime legislation, trying hard to make the danger of the legislation known to more people.

In Hatsukaichi City in Hiroshima Prefecture, a citizen's association has been continuing a sit-in in front of the city office to oppose the wartime legislation since March 20 when the U.S. forces began to attack Iraq.

About 900 people took part in the action in the last 47 days. They called on citizens who visited the city office on business to make a paper crane as a symbol of peace. To date, 2,000 paper cranes have been collected.

In Tochigi City in Tochigi Prefecture, a Japanese Communist Party member of the city assembly canvassed the city's small factories door to door, calling on workers to sign a petition against the contingency bills and distributing handbills.

Yoshiko Fujinuma, 65, recalled that as a child she took shelter from incendiary bombs in a bamboo thicket during the Pacific War. She gave her signature, saying that the handbill had informed her of the danger of the legislation. (end)