10,000 people holding 'lights of peace'converge on Defense Agency
About 10,000 people holding a lamp, lantern, or penlight marched in demonstration on February 5 to the Defense Agency building in opposition to dispatches of the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq.
The action, the largest one after the first unit of Ground SDF left for Iraq, was held at the call of lawyers in the Japan Lawyers Association for Freedom.
The 3.5-kilometer parade started with about 5,000 people at a park in Tokyo. Many people along the road to the Defense Agency joined the march, and by the time the marchers arrived at the agency's building, the number of participants was more than 10,000.
At the start of the march, Sakamoto Osamu of the Japan Lawyers Association for Freedom said, "Let's develop this action in every community, school, and workshop at the grassroots level, and carry this momentum to a huge joint action scheduled worldwide for March 20 in opposition to the Iraq War." (end)
