Japan Press Weekly

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2008 April 23 - 29 [SDF]

Armed Ground SDF members parade down local streets

About 300 members of the Ground Self-Defense Force’s regional unit marched in demonstration on April 26 in Tsu City in Mie Prefecture carrying guns. Some of them were riding on about 60 armored vehicles, including some pulling missile launchers.

Members of the local Japanese Communist Party and the Peace Committee holding banners and placards staged a protest.

The event was held for the first in 40 years by the GSDF Hisai Garrison in Tsu City to mark the “100th anniversary” of the establishment of the former Imperial Army 33rd Infantry Regiment that was stationed in the city.

GSDF Colonel Kai Yoshiki, regiment commander, in an article contributed to a local paper to mark the 100th anniversary of its founding said, “I hope that the brilliant history and tradition of the regiment, known for its great efforts exerted in the Japan-Russo War and the Japan-China War, will be passed on to younger people.”

Watching the SDF soldiers marching, Kasai Kimiko, secretary general of the Shiga Prefectural Peace Committee, said, “This is an outright ‘military parade’ (that conflicts with the constitutional ban on Japan’s participation in wars). Given the recent Nagoya High Court ruling that recognized SDF dispatches to Iraq as unconstitutional, this is absolutely unacceptable.”

“It is very serious that they have little understanding of their violation of the Constitution and used the phrase ‘100th anniversary’.”

Japan’s old Imperial Army was dissolved in 1945 and the present GSDF is supposed to have nothing in common with it.
- Akahata, April 27, 2008