Japan Press Weekly

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2008 February 20 - 26 [PEACE]

Article 9 Peace Walk starts in Hiroshima

With the aim of raising public awareness of the importance of Article 9, the “Article 9 Peace Walk” on February 24 left the A-bomb Dome in Hiroshima City for Makuhari in Chiba City where the Global Article 9 Conference will be held on May 4-6.

About 300 people took part in a rally held at the march’s starting point. Speeches were delivered by Asai Motofumi, Hiroshima City University Hiroshima Peace Institute president and co-representative of the Global Article 9 Conference in Hiroshima to be held on May 5, and Asami Yasuhito, Hitotsubashi University professor and co-representative of the organizing committee of the march. Asami said, “This is a parade to tenderly convey the message of Article 9 to ordinary people.”

Participants from the U.S., Vietnam, and Iraq also spoke. Kato Gyoe, 67-year-old priest of the Japan Buddha Sangha, who will walk for 71 days all the way to Makuhari, said, “Dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was the worst form of violence against human beings. Nonviolence is the way to overcome it. I will walk with the spirit of the war-renouncing Article 9.”

Rally participants adopted an appeal demanding that the government determine the causes of the collision of a Self-Defense Forces Aegis destroyer and a fishing boat as well as establish a foreign policy based on Article 9.