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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Anti-war events marking start of Pacific War

On December 8, the day marking the 64th anniversary of the start of the Pacific War, activists of the women's movement took to the streets in Tokyo to share their resolve with the public to never again send their children to war.

In the Ginza district, playing John Lennon's "Imagine", members of the Japan Mothers Congress organizing committee carried out a campaign to give out copies of the "red slip" (the call-up notice) to passers-by, calling for the war-renouncing Article 9 to be defended and for Japan's Self-Defense Forces to be withdrawn from Iraq.

A 60-year-old woman who received a "red slip" said, "I was born during an air raid. My mom said she couldn't breast-feed due to a shortage of food and had a tough time bringing me up. I don't want my children to experience the same hardships."

In front of JR Shinjuku Station, the Central Action Committee against the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty (Anpo-Haki) appealed to the public, "Don't turn Japan again into a war-fighting nation!"

A-38-year-old passer-by said, "I don't want to realize after the start of war that it was a mistake to have changed Article 9."

Also in Shinjuku, the Democratic Youth League of Japan and the Japanese Communist Party held an exhibition of photo panels showing the tragedy of the Pacific War, and collected signatures in defense of the Constitution.

JCP member of the House of Councilors Yoshikawa Haruko addressed the crowd, "If Japan changes the Constitution to legally maintain armed troops, young people will be drafted."

About 100 journalists on the same day attended a meeting held by the Japan Congress of Journalists on the theme of the fate of politics under Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro and the media responsibility for such politics. They attempted to report on the truth behind the U.S. military realignment plan, and their articles were not published in the mainstream newspapers.
- Akahata, December 9, 2005