Japan Press Weekly

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2015 June 10 - 16 [SDF]

SDF hold military parade in shopping area despite local opposition

Japan’s Self-Defense Forces staged a military parade on June 13 in Sasebo City, Nagasaki Prefecture, in defiance of local public opposition. Members of pacifist and anti-nuke groups raised their voices in protest on the streets.

The Ground and Maritime SDF annually hold this kind of demonstration with the aim of introducing new SDF members to the public.

On that Saturday, headed by the SDF marching band, about 650 members wearing camouflage fatigues and carrying rifles marched through the main shopping arcade. Many parents and children were there, looking surprised.

Some 30 members of the local Peace Committee and the regional Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs (Sasebo Gensuikyo) shouted from the sidewalk, “Don’t show off your guns to children!” “Don’t send young people to battlefronts!”

In a protest rally held prior to the parade, Sasebo Gensuikyo representative Yamashita Chiaki, also a Japanese Communist Party member of the city assembly, referred to the Abe government-submitted war-related bills under Diet discussion.

“Many SDF members did not join the forces because they wanted to support the U.S. military in wars. Let’s work together to protect the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution as well as block the move to turn Japan into a country that will fight wars abroad,” Yamashita said.


Past related articles:
> 54 SDF members commit suicide after returning from abroad [May 28, 2015]
> SDF conducts military parade amid citizens’ protest [May 25, 2014]