Action against SDF dispatch to Iraq takes place throughout Japan

With the Defense Agency director general's order for the Ground Self-Defense Force to go to Iraq imminent, calls against the SDF dispatch got louder throughout Japan during the weekend.

In Tokyo, about 6,000 people attended the "World Peace Now" assembly at Hibiya Amphitheater on January 25. A representative from the U.S. "Peaceful Tomorrows", a group of families that lost their loved ones in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, denounced the United States for killing many innocent Afghan and Iraqi citizens in the U.S. wars. Killing is always a wrong means of solving problems, he said.

In the western city of Kobe, about 80 people attended a study meeting organized on January 24 by the Japanese Communist Party Hyogo Prefectural Committee. JCP member of the House of Councilors Koizumi Chikashi, who was the main speaker, emphasized that the struggle against the SDF dispatch to Iraq is a struggle for the right to live in peace.

At Koyaike Park in Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture, about 1,500 people on January 25 marched in demonstration forming a human chain surrounding the Ground Self-Defense Force Middle Army. JCP Osawa Tatsumi, Doi Takako of the Social Democratic Party, and Amagasaki City Mayor Shirai Aya sent messages in support of this action. (end)