Japan Press Weekly

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2014 October 29 - November 4 [SDF]

JCP achieves removal of photos promoting SDF at public schools

Japanese Communist Party members of the Kagoshima City Assembly have recently had the city’s board of education stop exhibiting photographs depicting the Self-Defense Forces’ training exercises at public junior high schools.

In response to the SDF’s request, five municipal junior high schools displayed 36 large photos of combat exercises in their hallways. The caption accompanying a photo showing SDF members running with rifles in their hands read, “We are training strong warriors.”

A student’s parent reported the photo exhibition to JCP city assembly member Tateyama Kiyotaka on October 23. After Tateyama visited the school and confirmed the existence of the display, the JCP assemblypersons’ group urged the board of education to remove the photos. The following day, the education authority took down the exhibits.

Earlier this year, those public schools were requested by the PR office of a Ground SDF camp in the prefecture to display photos of their activities in school buildings. The written request stated that the exhibition is intended to familiarize young people with the SDF so that the SDF can “smoothly” take action in an emergency.

Consulted by the school administrators, the city’s education board advised them to accept the request only if those photos show the SDF’s disaster relief activities. But the board failed to inquire of the SDF what kind of photos they would put on display.

The JCP assembly members’ group on October 29 made representations to the head of the education board, demanding a total ban on the SDF’s photo exhibitions in schools. They pointed out that it runs counter to the spirit of the war-renouncing Japanese Constitution.