Japan Peace Committee to further increase anti-U.S. base struggle and nuclear weapons abolition campaign

Japan Press Weekly

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Japan Peace Committee to further increase anti-U.S. base struggle and nuclear weapons abolition campaign

The Japan Peace Committee (JPC) held its National Convention in Minoo City in Osaka on June 13 and 14 attended by about 260 delegates. The discussion focused on ways to increase grassroots peace movements everywhere throughout the country in opposition to the more than 100 U.S. military bases and facilities in Japan, as well as the struggle to defend and revitalize the war renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution and demand the abolition of nuclear weapons.

JPC Secretary General Chisaka Jun in the keynote report criticized the Japanese government for its subservience to U.S. military alliance/policy, which is very unusual and extraordinary in the present-day world. He stressed the importance of maintaining the constitutional principles of peace and blocking any adverse moves.

The government is pushing ahead with the "anti-piracy" legislation in order to dispatch the Self-Defense Forces overseas to take part in U.S. military operations anywhere throughout the world. Intent on blocking the bill, the JPC Convention emphasized the need to make known to the public the dangerous role of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty at study meetings and on various other occasions.

The convention decided to collect 350,000 signatures calling for a world without nuclear weapons.

Delegates from Nago City in Okinawa, Iwakuni City in Yamaguchi, and Yokosuka City in Kanagawa, which host major U.S. military bases, reported that anti-base struggles have been strengthened by joining hands with local autonomies, other civil organizations, and residential associations.

A delegate from Okinawa reported on their recent campaign to submit opinions to the Defense Ministry, which is bulldozing through a nominal environmental assessment on Nago's air base plan.

A delegate from Yokosuka called for nationwide support to a mayoral candidate who has been campaigning in opposition to the homeporting of the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington at Yokosuka. Election funds donated from participants reached 100,000 yen.

Yamazaki Masanori, who has filed a suit against a U.S. sailor for killing his wife in Yokosuka, appealed for more support and received warm applause.

In one of the workplaces, a peace activist from Akita reported that his peace committee petitioned 26 municipalities to urge the government to make public the original text of the secret Japan-U.S. agreement, in which Japan pledged to not use the primary right to exercise jurisdiction over offenses committed by U.S. military personnel in Japan. Ten out of the 26 municipalities approved the petition.

"Though there is no U.S. military base in Akita, we believe that the Japan-U.S. secret agreement has an important bearing on the right to live in peace and that the government should be blamed for abandoning the nation's sovereignty," the delegate added.

A delegate from the JPC group in Yamato Takada City in Nara Prefecture said that they held their 100th signature collection campaign recently at a station to oppose an adverse revision of the Constitution.

Many speakers said that their activities in cooperation with local Councils against A and H Bombs and democratic organizations are collecting far more signatures since the U.S. president appealed for a "world without nuclear weapons."

The convention elected Naito Isao and Hatada Shigeo along with three other persons as representative national directors and Chisaka Jun as secretary general. It was reported that the JPC successfully increased its membership (over 18,000) as well as numbers of subscribers to "Heiwa Shimbun" ("Peace Gazette") issued every ten days, and the monthly "Heiwa Undo" ("Peace Movement").

- Akahata, June 16, 17, 2009