 People listen to Constitution's global wisdom for peace On Constitution Day on May 3, a rally to increase the movement in defense of the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution and in opposition to constitutional revision was held at Hibiya Public Hall in Tokyo with 5,000 people attending. Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo and Social Democratic Party president Fukushima Mizuho gave speeches. People lined up for hours before the doors were opened, and those who were not admitted monitored the large screen outdoors. After the rally, participants marched to the Ginza. In Nagoya City, Beate S. Gordon, one of the constitutional drafters, gave a lecture to an audience of 2,500 under the title "Peace and Constitution on the 60th postwar year." Refuting the argument that the Constitution was "imposed" on Japan against its will, she said that the new Constitution was willingly accepted because it represented the people's wishes that had been suppressed during the war. She said that she thinks that the real writer of the Constitution was history's wisdom. In Tokushima City in Shikoku region, Okudaira Yasuhiro, one of the nine founders of the Article 9 Association, spoke to 260 citizens. A leaflet with the entire text of the Constitution was distributed to each participant. Okudaira said, "Apparently the Article 9 Association has struck a vein of peace in the people." In Kyoto, citizens' 50 word messages about the Constitution were read at a citizens' rally. Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi published a statement on Constitution Day. Referring to the ongoing moves to adversely revise the Constitution, the statement called on the people "to join efforts with the JCP on the single pint of opposing constitutional revision." Ichida expressed the JCP's determination to do its utmost to foil the moves with the strength of the popular majority." -Akahata, May 3-4, 2005 |