2016: Retaking Japan
Die Verfassung Japans. Artikel 9 der Friedensverfassung
Source: Asia Pacific Journal / Japan Focus, Volume 14 | Issue 13 | Number 4 | July 1, 2016
Mit freundlicher Erlaubnis von Japan Focus
10. Juli 2016 > Parlamentswahl in Japan (Oberhaus/Sangiin)
Retaking Japan:
The Abe Administration’s Campaign to Overturn the Postwar Constitution
Muto IchiyoTranslated by John Junkerman
Translator’s note:
This is a translation of a keynote speech delivered by Muto Ichiyo at a peace conference held in Hiroshima Aug. 4-5, 2015, marking the 70th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in the war. The conference, attended by 300 local and national activists, sought to shed new light on the war responsibility of imperial Japan and US responsibility for the atomic bombings. The text has been revised and updated for the Asia-Pacific Journal.
The speech was made during a summer of intense public protests over security legislation then being debated in the Japanese Diet. Despite opinion polls that showed the legislation to be exceedingly unpopular, the laws were rammed through the Diet on September 19, 2015. These contentious issues have now entered a new stage, with the drive to revise Japan’s peace constitution at the center of the Upper House election scheduled for July 10. Muto’s speech analyzes the issues that lie behind the present contest in light of the complex dynamics of Japan’s postwar politics. JJ
* * * * *
The struggle over reshaping postwar Japan entered a new phase on March 2, 2016, when Prime Minister Abe Shinzo declared at an Upper House Budget Committee hearing that he was committed to revising the constitution within his term of office, that is, by September 2018. Changing the postwar regime by fundamentally revising the present pacifist constitution has been Abe’s goal since he returned to power in 2012, but for some time he had avoided clearly stating his plan, knowing that the majority of voters oppose constitutional revision.
In the three elections that have taken place during his administration (including the one that returned him to power in 2012), Abe has trumpeted “Abenomics,” ultra-lax monetary and fiscal policies aimed at extracting the economy from deflation by stimulating consumer spending, as his main political program. However, while campaigning on its economic policies, since the elections the Abe administration has pressed forward with changes in laws, systems, and institutions to heighten Japan’s defense posture and undermine the constraints on Japan’s armed forces imposed by Japan’s constitution.
Please, continue reading the pdf-File here
Lesen Sie bitte auch
1. "We demand politics which respects Constitutionalizm"
2. The Final Statement
2016: Zum Gedenken an den 18. Mai 1980 in Gwangju
Kwangju Uprising - 18. - 28. Mai 1980 - 18. Mai 2016
Zum Gedenken an das Massaker des
südkoreanischen Militärs an der Bevölkerung der
südkoreanischen Stadt Kwangju im Mai 1980.
Auf dem ursprünglichen Friedhof von Kwangju - auf der Suche nach Identitäten.
Die Schmerzen, das Sterben, das Massaker, die Trauer - auch nach so vielen Jahren
nicht vergessen. Fotos vom Oktober 2001: ps.
Weiterlesen: 2016: Zum Gedenken an den 18. Mai 1980 in Gwangju
2016: Jürgen Hinzpeter - "Ein Held Koreas"
Japan-Korea Solidarität in den 70er und 80er Jahren
Kwangju Massaker 18.05.1980
Jürgen Hinzpeter - "Ein Held Koreas"
Zum Tode von Jürgen Hinzpeter im Januar 2016. Journalist.
Wir lernten ihn 1980 im ARD-Studio Tokyo kennen. Wir suchten einen Journalisten, der am sog. Aufstand der Bürger in Kwangju gegen die Militärdiktatur in Südkorea interessiert war. Über ein Telefongespräch aus Gwangju nach Seoul und Tokyo hatten wir von den unglaublichen Vorgängen gehört: die zur Bewachung der Grenze nach Nordkorea eingesetzten Soldaten marschierten kurz nach Mitternacht durch Seoul (es bestand Ausgehverbot!) in Richtung Süden. Dass der Aufmarsch Gwangju galt, dass in der Nacht eine lange Liste von Politikern und Regierungskritikern verhaftet worden waren, erfuhren wir erst am folgenden Tag. Da flog dann auch der Fotojournalist Hinzpeter mit dem erstbesten Flieger nach Seoul. Von dort führte sie der Taxifahrer auf kleinen Straßen nach Kwangju. Hinzpeter beschreibt das später in seinem Aufsatz „I bow my head“ (The Kwangju Uprising. Eyewitness Press Accounts of Korea‘s Tiananmen, hg. von H. Scott-Stokes & Lee Eui, 2000). Sie trafen auf das Militär, das die Stadt bereits abgeriegel hatte: „There were at least fifteen heavy tanks parked in the opposite lane. This time, we had no choice but to obey. An officer in charge had his men aim their machine guns at our car in case we were in doubt.
Off the expressway we went… Entering the city ….we were immediately surrounded by a large crowd. … A man approached. … He was nervous. His body trembled. He was frequently overtaken by emotion … many of his freinds had been shot, he said. … There was nowhere to go, nowhere to hide from the bullets.“
Hinzpeter fuhr nicht nur ein Mal in die Stadt, sondern nachdem er seine Filme vom ersten Tag sicher nach Tokyo gebracht hatte, gleich ein zweites Mal. Eine Frau grüßte ihn: „What have we done wrong? Why did the paratroopers come? They were drunk. We should not be afraid, we too should be ready to die for the ideal of political freedom.“
6 Jahre später nahm Hinzpeter an einer Demonstration zum Gedenken an Gwangju in Seoul teil. Polizei in Zivil schlug ihn plötzlich nieder. Schläger im Dienst der Polizei, schleppten ihn über die Straße und übergaben ihn der gefürchteten Bereitschaftspolizei. Sie warfen ihn zu Boden, traktierten ihn mit Stiefeln, zerstörten die Videokamera (aber diese rettete ihm dennoch sein Leben). Im Krankenhaus stellte man seine Wirbelsäulenverletzung fest…
Er musste seinen geliebten Beruf aufgeben (1986). Jürgen Hinzpeter hat viel gewagt, ohne Rücksicht auf das ewigen Ergehen. Ohne ihn hätte die Welt damals im Mai 1980 nicht so schnell und umfassend über die mit brutaler Gewalt vollzogene „Eroberung“ der Stadt Gwangju erfahren. In Südkorea ist Jürgen Hinzpeter ein Held.
Wir sind ihm dankbar dafür, dass er weder Mühe noch Risiko gescheut hat, dass er nie bereut hat, damals im Mai 1980 den Weg durch die „feindlichen Linien“ zu suchen um zu den Freunden von Demokratie und Freiheit zu gelangen und ihren Kampf zu dokumentieren. (K. & P.Schneiss)
Quelle: Informationsbrief 2016-1 der Deustchen Ostasienmission (DOAM)
http://www.doam.org/index.php/archiv/buecher-2/1408-archiv-doaminfo
2016: Der letzte Gottesdienst vor dem Tor
Gangjeong auf Chejudo
The last mass in front of base gate
by Sung-Hee Choi
As of May 7, 2016, the street mass which used to be daily carried out every 11 am in front of the base construction gate for five years since Sept. 3, 2011 ended. The Catholic Fathers in Gangjeong made such a hard decision with tears.
It was not easy for everybody who joined the last gate mass yesterday. Many people had tears in their eyes. Even after the mass, nobody wanted to leave, The human chain went near for one hour since people wanted to share their beautiful wishes for peace and love one another. It was also gathering of our will for continuing and making a new struggle.
2016: The Fukushima Disaster - a Serious Crime
Fukushima: 2011-03-11 - 2016-03-11
The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus Volume 14 | Issue 6 | Number 2, March 15, 2016
Mit freundlicher Erlaubnis von Japan Focus.
“The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster is a Serious Crime”: Interview with Koide Hiroaki
福島核災害は明らかに深刻な犯罪である—小出裕章氏に聞く
Katsuya Hirano, Hirotaka Kasai
Translation by Robert Stolz
Transcription by Akiko Anson
Introduction
Koide Hiroaki (66) has emerged as an influential voice and a central figure in the anti-nuclear movement since the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi of March 11, 2011. He spent his entire career as a nuclear engineer working towards the abolition of nuclear power plants. His powerful critique of the "nuclear village" and active involvement in anti-nuclear movements "earned him an honorable form of purgatory as a permanent assistant professor at Kyoto University."1 Koide retired from Kyoto University in the spring of 2015, but continues to write and act as an important voice of conscience for many who share his vision of the future free from nuclear energy and weapons. He has authored 20 books on the subject. Professor Kasai Hirotaka and I visited his office at Kyoto University's Research Reactor Institute in Kumatori, Osaka, on December 26th, 2014 for this interview. We believe that the contents of the interview, which offer new information about the degree of radioactive contamination and invaluable insight into Koide's ethical and political stance as a scientist, remain crucial for our critical reflection on ecological destruction, the violation of human rights, and individual responsibility. Professor Robert Stolz, the translator of this interview and the author of Bad Water (Duke University Press, 2015), provides a historical perspective on the interview in a separate article. KH
Interview
I The Fukushima Disaster and Government and Corporate Response
Hirano: How does the Fukushima accident compare with the bombing of Hiroshima or Chernobyl in its scale? What are the possible effects of this yet unknown exposure?
Koide: Let's start with the scale of the accident: It was a core meltdown involving the release of various kinds of radioactive material. Radioactive noble gas isotopes were also released, as were iodine, cesium, strontium, and other radioactive material. The noble gas isotopes have a short half-life and so at this stage they are all gone. Iodine, too, is gone. So now four years since the accident the materials that are still a problem are cesium-137, strontium-90, and tritium; really, it's these three.2
Now, as for the scale of the accident, I think it would be best to compare these three radionuclides.
2016: On Forgetting Fukushima
Fukushima: 2011-03-11 - 2016-03-11
The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 5, No. 1, March 1, 2016
On Forgetting Fukushima
Robert Jacobs
This month the media and social networks are busy remembering Fukushima on the fifth anniversary of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown, but what we are really observing is the beginning of the work of forgetting Fukushima. Fukushima is taking its place alongside the many forgotten nuclear disasters of the last 70 years. Like Mayak and Santa Susana, soon all that will be left of the Fukushima nuclear disaster are the radionuclides that will cycle through the ecosystem for millennia. In that sense we are internalizing Fukushima into our body unconsciousness.
Forgetting begins with lies. In Fukushima the lies began with TEPCO (the owner of the power plants) denying that there were any meltdowns when they knew there were three. They knew they had at least one full meltdown by the end of the first day, less than 12 hours after the site was struck by a powerful earthquake knocking out the electrical power. TEPCO continued to tell this lie for three months, even after hundreds of thousands of people had been forced to or voluntarily evacuated. Just last week TEPCO admitted that it was aware of the meltdowns much earlier, or to put it bluntly, it continued to hide the fact that it had been lying for five years (I've written about the dynamic behind this here).
The government of Japan had such weak regulation of the nuclear industry that it was completely reliant on TEPCO for all information about the state of the plants and the risks to the public. It was reduced to being an echo chamber for the denials coming from a company that was lying. The people living near the plants, and downwind as the plumes from explosions in three plants carried radionuclides high into the air and deposited large amounts of radiation far beyond the evacuation zones, had to make life and death decisions as they were being lied to and manipulated.
Lying about nuclear issues is not unique to Japan or Fukushima. It began with the first use of nuclear weapons against human beings, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When announcing the first attack President Harry Truman referred to Hiroshima as a "military base," and said it was chosen specifically to avoid civilian casualties. Hiroshima was a naval base (in a country whose navy was already destroyed), but
2016: North Korea's Launch of Kwangmyongsong-4
North Korean Nuclear Test (Hydrogen Bomb Test; 6.1.2016) and Missile Launch (7.2.2016)
Statement as PDF
Statement
Concerning North Korea's Launch of Kwangmyongsong-4
The Reconciliation and Reunification Committee of the National Council of Churches (NCCK) expresses a deep regret on North Korea’s launch of Kwangmyongsong-4 on February 7 as it will heighten on the Korean soil the arms race among super powers and eventually threaten peace and stability in North East Asia. We are also greatly concerned that in the present situation the South and the US are jumping into the decision to deploy on the Korean peninsula the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and establish a KOR-US-JAPAN Missile Defense system in response to the launch of Kwangmyuongsung-4 earth observation satellite.
1. We oppose the deployment of THAAD on the Korean peninsula.
The THAAD deployment will only increase the possibility of military conflict and clash beyond the Korean peninsula, in the entire North East Asia region. China and Russia are strongly opposing the THAAD deployment with the possible establishment of KOR-US-JAPAN Missile Defense system that will follow after. The THAAD deployment will aggravate a new Cold War between KOR-US-JAPAN and China-Russia, at the same time as it may offer a beginning that will lead the whole region to war. The painful experience of the Korean War has taught us that peace and stability in the Korean peninsula cannot be achieved by force. Hence we ask that both the South and the US immediately cancel the decision to deploy the THAAD and begin dialogue with the North, China and Russia for denuclearization as well as a long-lasting peace system on the Korean peninsula.
2. We pose a fundamental question about the international society’s additional sanctions against the North.
The international society along with the UN immediately declared additional harsh sanctions against the North in reaction to the satellite launch. However the international society has to acknowledge that North Korea as a sovereign state has the right to launch satellites that are not equipped with nuclear warheads. Additionally it cannot be denied that the international society’s sanctions and pressures on the North have not created fundamental solutions and that they have rather aggravated the “vicious cycle of confrontation.” Therefore we appeal to the UN and the international society that it is not sanctions and confrontations but dialogues and negotiations, understanding and tolerance that will prevent total collapse.
3. We urge Park Geun Hye’s administration to stop the attempt to pass the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Despite the fact that it has been publicly acknowledged that terror can be sufficiently prevented with the existing organizations and laws, the Park administration is attempting to pass the Anti-Terrorism Act using the North’s nuclear tests and satellite launch as pretexts. If the Anti-Terrorism Act, which is currently being pushed by the government and the ruling party, is enacted and implemented, absolute power will be centered on the National Intelligence Service and our society will face a non-democratic reality in which people experience severe restriction of their freedom and rights in the consolidation of the government’s power. With a warning that the Anti-Terrorism Act will heavily damage the healthy development of democracy, we urge the government and the ruling party to stop using the current North situation as a pretext to pass the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Peace on the Korean peninsula and stability in the North East Asia cannot be achieved through an arms race. Only dialogues, negotiations, understanding and tolerance will pave way for peace and reunification.
February 8, 2016
Kim Young Ju, General Secretary, NCCK
Noh Jung Sun, Chair of Reconciliation and Reunification, NCCK