East Asia Theater

Abe covers for war crimes gaffe at Hiroshima Day

Hiroshima marked the 62nd anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack Aug. 6, where Prime Minister Shinzo Abe scrambled to mend fences with survivors still outraged by comments from a cabinet member apologizing for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan's historic first post-war Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma, an Abe appointee, said in a June speech, "I understand that the bombings ended the war, and I think that it couldn't be helped." Kyuma was forced to step down in the outcry following the comments, but still retains his seat in the Diet, where he represents—perversely—Nagasaki.

Japanese anti-war conference unites Okinawan, Iraqi struggles

On Aug. 4, the National Assembly for Peace and Democracy opened at a conference hall in Kamata, a city within the Tokyo metropolitan area. Attended by some 500 activists from throughout Japan, as well as participants from South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and the United States, this was the 37th annual National Assembly, better known by its Japanese acronym Zenko. The group first emerged from the struggle against Japanese involvement in the Vietnam war, and history has now brought it full circle, as Washington again calls upon Tokyo to back up a US military adventure—this time in Iraq, where Japan still maintains troops in an officially "noncombatant" role. The most honored guests at the Zenko conference were Samir Adil and Nadia Mahmood, leaders of the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC), a civil resistance coalition which came together in 2005 to oppose the occupation and demand a secular state. Another luminary was Tokushin Yamauchi, a leading opponent of the US military presence in Okinawa, who was elected to the upper house of the Diet in last month's dramatic turn-around elections that dealt a humiliating defeat to the Liberal Democratic Party of pro-military Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

US abets Japanese remilitarization —and revisionism

Well well, look who's running for the Diet. An almost perfect analogy to the vile Alessandra Mussolini in Italy. She was (officially) "shunned" by the "post-Fascist" National Alliance—even as doing so only helped legitimize and mainstream the party whose roots go straight back Il Duce. Japan's ruling LDP does not have roots in the fascist era, but it is leading a propaganda drive to rehabilitate Japan's World War II role—and a political drive to remilitarize the country. This revealing July 26 USA Today report is rather understatedly entitled "Nationalism gains strength in Japan":

"Bad nuke" closes in North Korea; "good nuke" leaks radiation in Japan

International inspectors July 15 confirmed that North Korea had shut down the nuclear reactor at its Yongbyon research facility, the fruit of a painstaking diplomatic effort in which the DPRK will immediately start receiving oil aid from South Korea. (WP, Reuters, July 12) The following day, a 6.8 earthquake in Niigata prefecture, Japan, caused a fire and leak of radioactive water into the sea at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, run by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), is the world's largest commercial nuclear plant. Japan has a fast-growing nuclear industry, with 55 plants operating and another 11 planned. Nuclear power currently provides a third of the country's energy, but Tokyo plans to boost this to 40%. The plans are opposed by environmentalists and local residents who say the government is inviting disaster by building so many reactors in a seismically unstable country. (The Independent, Reuters, July 17)

China: repression follows peasant protests over reproductive rights

Police in southern China's Guangxi region arrested 28 as thousands staged angry protests against draconian local enforcement of the government's family-planning policy. In Bobai county, more than 3,000 people smashed through the gates of a town government compound, setting fire to vehicles and damaging files and office equipment. Disturbances were reported in sveen Bobai towns following a drive by local officials to enforce fines for families who failed to comply with China's national one-child policy.

Japan dispatches warship to Okinawa as anti-base protests mount

As a campaign of nonviolent protests mount in Okinawa over construction of a new off-shore US military heliport at Henoko, an e-mail alert from the local anti-militarism group "Project Disagree" informs us that the the Japanese government has dispatched the Maritime Self Defense Force ship Bungo to the Henoko base. The Bungo is a gunboat and mine-sweeper equipped with divers, and its mission is apparently to assist private contractors in the environmental "pre-survey" for the off-shore expansion. The environmental assessment is being overseen by the Defense Facility Administration Bureau, and local media have noted that Maritime Self Defense Force involvement in this type of environmental review is unprecedented. Writes Project Disagree: "Although Yasuhisa Shiozaki, Chief Cabinet Secretary, said the Maritime Self Defense Force in Henoko is not tasked with suppression of local base opposition, Okinawans suffering from the US presence and the Japanese government's discriminatory policies reacted with anger."

Protesters block US base in Okinawa

Thousands of protesters formed a human chain May 13 in Okinawa, Japan, to protest the US military presence. The human chain symbolically encircled the 17-kilometer perimeter of the Kadena Air Base. Banners demanded a withdrawal of the 22,000 US troops stationed there, reported NHK public television. The protest was organized by local labor unions and pacifist organizations. It took place two days before the 35th anniversary of the return of the Okinawa archipelago to Japan after it was occupied at the end of World War II, remaining in US hands until 1972. (Periodico26, Cuba, May 14)

China: suicide bombing over land dispute

A farmer in southwest China killed a village leader in a suicide bombing that also seriously injured nine other local officials following a land dispute April 15. Yue Xiaobao detonated explosives strapped to his body as he approached officials from Lishan village, Yunnan province, the Beijing Times reported. The attack came after village leaders had destroyed Yue's crop of sweet potatoes and tobacco, a leading cash crop in the region. Yue carried out the attack while officials were on an inspection tour of local farmlands. Yue and Lishan village leader Ren Xuecai were killed immediately.

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