Japan Press Weekly

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2008 December 3 - 9 [HISTORY]

Activists take to the streets for peace action marking 67th anniversary of Pacific War

On the 67th anniversary of the start of the Pacific War on December 8, various citizens’ organizations as well as the Japanese Communist Party took to the streets of many cities throughout the country to call for abolition of the bill to extend the Anti-Terrorism Special Measures Law and for peace.

In Tokyo, JCP Dietmembers held a speech assembly in front of Shinjuku Station. House of Representatives member Kasai Akira in his speech said that the Pacific War launched by the Imperial Japanese Army expanded Japan’s war of aggression throughout the Asia-Pacific region and ended up costing more than 20 million lives. He reminded the audience that Japan after the war “resolved not to repeat its mistakes at the start of its post-war reconstruction and that this is the responsibility we must fulfill as we strive to get along with other peoples of Asia and the rest of the world.”

Regarding the issue of former Chief of Staff of the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force Tamogami Toshio’s controversial essay glorifying the war of aggression, Kasai criticized the Liberal Democratic Party for allowing pro-Yasukuni Dietmembers to remain in the center of the cabinet to publicly call for a Japan to become a “war-fighting nation”.

Warning that the ruling parties are intent on getting the bill to extend the Anti-Terrorism Special Measures Law enacted as early as next week, Kasai called on the public to stop the dangerous move to force Japan to abandon its remorse for the war of aggression and to be isolated from the worldwide movement for peace.

In Saitama Prefecture, members of women’s organization stood in front of JR Urawa Station to hand out copies of the “red slip”, the call-up-notice used in Japan during World War II, to call on passers-by to support the signature campaign to protect Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution.