Teachers and religious leaders act for peace

Teachers

About 50 teachers on March 3 made representations to the Cabinet Office and the Defense Agency demanding that the dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces units to Iraq be canceled.

This demonstration was organized by the All Japan Teachers and Staffs Union (Zenkyo) and a joint struggle committee of teachers from various teachers' unions.

In the Diet building, they were received by Japanese Communist Party House of Representatives member Ishii Ikuko. Speaking to the participants, she criticized Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro for cutting the national budget for compulsory education while spending huge sums of money to send the SDF to Iraq.

A participant from Kyoto stated, "The Iraq war is clearly unjustifiable. I can't tell my students that it was a just war." He expressed his determination to continue to raise his voice to prevent his students from being sent to battlefields.

Religious leaders

On March 2 in Tokyo, about 100 religious leaders held a meeting to discuss common grounds for defending peace.

The participants included Buddhists, Christians, Shintoists, Muslims, and members of various peace groups. They exchanged opinions on the role of religion in maintaining peace.

A representative of the Christian Peace Network said, "The Christian fundamentalists supporting President Bush as well as Islamists are involved in the Iraq war." A participant reported that 130 members of his religious group supported its call for opposition to the war on Iraq. (end)