Don't shed Japanese youth blood for the U.S: Shii at Narashino rally

More than 1,200 residents living in the vicinity of the Narashino Ground Self-Defense Forces Base in Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture, on December 23 attended a rally and demonstration against the government decision to dispatch SDF units to Iraq.

The action was jointly organized by four organizations in the prefecture, including the Prefectural Center against the Wartime Legislation.

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo, who took part in the rally and demonstration with JCP House of Councilors member Koike Akira, encouraged the participants to heighten public awareness in opposition to the SDF dispatch plan.

The JCP chair stressed that the government is sending troops to battle for the first time since the end of WW II, in flagrant violation of the Constitution. "This will significantly change the direction of Japan," he said. He told the participants that members of the Narashino 1st Airborne Brigade reportedly have a great chance to be included among 550 SDF members going to Iraq.

Referring to a women who expressed her deep concern about her boyfriend, a SDF member, in her letter to an anti-SDF-dispatch rally on December 10, Shii said, "What does Prime Minister Koizumi think about such concerns of SDF personnel's loved ones? Japanese young people must not shed their blood for the United States."

"Japan must cancel the dispatch plan, make diplomatic efforts with its war renouncing Article 9, and provide humanitarian support to the Iraqi people," Shii said. (end)