JCI cancels contract with education ministry for program to show pro-Yasukuni DVD in schools

   Faced with severe public criticism, the Junior Chamber International Japan (JCI) on June 20 canceled the contract with the education ministry for an education program using a JCI-produced pro-Yasukuni Shrine DVD that justifies and glorifies Japan’s past war of aggression.

   Japanese Communist Party Vice Chair Ishii Ikuko first exposed in the Diet the education ministry scheme to show the video in schools and has repeatedly demanded that the ministry cancel the contract and stop showing it. Nationwide, increasing number of parents, teachers, and citizens are standing up against the scheme.

   JCP Chair Shii Kazuo at a news conference held in the Diet Building on June 21 stressed, “Criticism in the Diet and local assemblies and grassroots movements have produced this important outcome.”

   Pointing out that the pro-Yasukuni DVD is similar to the Yasukuni Shrine’s war museum exhibits that glorify Japan’s past war of aggression and distorts historical facts, Shii said, “The withdrawal from the contract will deal a blow to the pro-Yasukuni advocates justifying the war of aggression. We will further increase the movement to reject any further moves by the pro-Yasukuni forces.”

   The JCI still intends to push forward with independent video showings. JCP Vice Chair Ishii said, “We will increase the public opposition to the video so that they will have to give up.”

<pro-Yasukuni DVD>

   The JCI-produced animated video entitled, “Pride,” which calls Japan’s past war of aggression the “Greater East Asia War,” the term that the wartime Japanese governments used to cover the nature of the war by describing it as a war to create the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere,” tries to instill in students the belief that Japan waged the war “to defend their beloved country.”

- Akahata, June 22, 2007