Opposition to wartime bills increasing in localities

Campaigns against the wartime bills are increasing around various regions in Japan.

In Okinawa, where U.S. military bases are concentrated, 5,500 people from all over the prefecture on June 8 assembled in Chatan Town calling for the three contingency bills to be scrapped.

They stressed that Okinawans, who had a tragic experience in the past Okinawa ground battle, want their island to be free of military bases and wartime legislation.

Hetona Choichi, Chatan Town mayor, pointed out that Okinawa with U.S. military bases will be an attack target in the event of emergency, and the people's rights will be violated. The mayor declared his strong opposition to the wartime legislation in order not to make Okinawa a battlefield again.

Along with Japanese Communist Party Lower House member Akamine Seiken, members from the Japanese Trade Union Federation (Rengo) Okinawa, Social Democratic Party, and Okinawa Social Mass Party took part in the event disregarding the differences of their political stances and expressing their determination to block the wartime bills.

In Niigata Prefecture, about 3,500 people including workers, teachers, mothers, young people, and religious people marched in a demonstration calling for the bills to be scrapped. At the rally prior to the march, JCP Lower House member Kijima Hideo as well as an SDP member promised that they will exert themselves to foil the wartime bills in the Diet.

In Kochi Prefecture, members of the JCP and all other opposition parties, the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) Kochi, and Rengo Kochi attended a rally in opposition to the emergency bills and media control bills on the evening of June 7. More than 1,300 citizens participated in the rally, carrying colorful banners and placards.

In Tokyo on June 8, lawyers, media people, and religious people took to streets of the Ginza, a well-known shopping district, to call on holiday makers to oppose the media control bills and the contingency legislation.

Bereaved families of the war dead carried out a campaign against the bills at a Tokyo suburban station, relating stories of the major air raids on Tokyo and the grief of family losses during WWII.

Buddhist trainees adopted a resolution saying that the bills go against Buddha's words, "Don't kill, don't let others kill, don't permit killing." (end)