September 19, 2011 Tokyo Nuclear Abolition Rally draws 60,000 Japanese citizens

(Via Mochizuki Cheshire Iori at Dianuke.org (which has more great photos):

A 94 year-old-man attended in a wheel chair.

(Sayakaiurani SAYAKA)

94歳のおじいさんが車椅子でデモ参加。『私はあの時、怖くて、言えなかった。非国民にされてしまうと怯えた。だから多くの日本人が死んでしまった。この国はまた形を変えて、戦争を始めている。決して原発という名の兵器を可動させてはならない。あの時の悔しさを今ここで！』と訴えてます。

We didn’t want to look like renegades against the nation,so a lot of Japanese went to the battle field and died.Now alternative war has started. Nuke is the weapon. We must never start it again.

“During World War II, I was scared of the government like all the other people.

During World War ll, I deeply regretted. I don’t want to repeat that again,that’s why I’m here.”

Okinawa Outreach: A new blog by Okinawans in Okinawa

For the news and perspectives directly from Okinawa, check out Okinawa Outreach: a new blog by Okinawan scholars and activists.

EX-SKF: "Radioactive Landfill: Tokyo Metropolitan Government Has Been Doing It Since May"

Via EX-SKF blog: "Radioactive Landfill: Tokyo Metropolitan Government Has Been Doing It Since May":

Yokohama City residents had just enough time to get organized very quickly and were able to halt (for now) the start of dumping of radioactive sludge ashes into the ocean in their final processing facility at the end of Minami Honmoku Pier on Tokyo Bay.

Tokyo residents either did not have a chance to do so because they didn't know, or they didn't care.

It turns out that Tokyo Metropolitan government has been dumping sludge from its water purification plants and burned ashes from the sewer sludge from the sludge plants in its landfill in Tokyo Bay at least since late May. The huge landfill is right near the Haneda Airport. (Photo: Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Environment)

On June 3, Tokyo Metropolitan government announced the result of air radiation survey done on the landfill locations where the radioactive sludge and ashes were being dumped, and that's how some people (mostly bloggers as far as I've found) noticed it and wrote about it.

"We refuse to inherit or leave a negative legacy" - Youth launch Tokyo hunger strike to end nuclear power

Commemorating the six-month mark of the Fukushima nuclear tragedy, a group of young adults from around the country began a ten-day hunger strike in Tokyo in front of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on Sunday, September 11th. Their goals are to call for an immediate end to nuclear power throughout the country, as well as advocate for increased health and financial support to those left vulnerable near the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.

The website for the action, which is titled " Tokyo Hunger Strike for the Future: Raising our voices not through fists or loudspeakers, but simply through fasting", describes the organizers' intentions as follows:

We, four young persons (one woman and three men), are going to do a "HUNGER STRIKE" for 10 days in Tokyo, hoping for a better future without nuclear power plants.

It will start from September 11, passing half of a year since we had the huge earthquake, tsunami and the accident of Fukushima nuclear power plants, and 10 years from 9.11.

The place is in front of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. We are making an appointment with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to submit this statement as a petition.

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー
Statement

Due to the radiation leakage from the accident of Fukushima 1st Nuclear Power Plant, a number of people have been forced to leave their hometowns and their livelihoods. This radiation will continue to be littered to the air, the land and the sea until the nuclear power plant in Fukushima ends. The accident has proven that there is no way to undo what happened, and there is no one who can take responsibility.

Not only that, nuclear power plants have continuously damaged the ecosystems in nature by emitting a large amount of heated effluents and producing radioactive waste, which are required to be managed properly for thousands of years, even if there is no accident with the plants.

We, the younger generations, have unwillingly inherited the responsibility for taking care of the radioactive wastes, which nearly remain semi-permanently, from the 54 nuclear power plants in Japan and the radiation leaked from the Fukushima 1st nuclear power plant. Even in this current situation after the earthquake, an environmental study has been conducted for the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Kaminoseki, Yamaguchi prefecture. In addition, the Tomari nuclear power plant has started commercial services without any reasonable explanation for Japanese citizens.

We, the younger generations, refuse to inherit a negative legacy from the nuclear power plants any more. We, the young generations, also refuse to leave any more negative legacy to the children who are most vulnerable to the radiation now, as well as to future generations.

We are launching a 10-day-hunger strike in order to petition the Japanese government to reflect the importance of lives and nature--which is the bread of life--within their policies. These are our prayers as the young generation, residents on the earth who will be forced to inherit the legacy of such responsibilities from you.

Petition

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda
Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yukio Edano
Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Masaharu Nakagawa
Minister of Foreign Affairs Koichiro Genba
Minister of Environment Goshi Hosono

・ Call off the Kaminoseki nuclear power plant construction project

・ Ensure the health and stable livelihoods of the people who are living in and around Fukushima prefecture where a high level of radiation is detected, support the life after evacuation, and give compensation for damages caused by the accident.

・ Hold public discussions about the risk of accidents and needs for restarting the nuclear power plants before considering restarting any nuclear power plant, and begin taking government responsibility for the accident.

・ Stop exporting the nuclear power plants. “No more Fukushima” anywhere on the earth!

・ Make a national policy to abolish all nuclear power facilities, including nuclear power plants and Monju/retreatment plants for nuclear waste, as well as change policies relating to natural energy.


Sincerely,

Naoya Okamoto, 20, Kaminoseki-cho, Yamaguchi prefecture
Kanta Yonehara, 21, Chiba prefecture
Shiori Skiguchi, 19, Tokyo prefecture
Yuiki Takenoshita, 22, Osaka prefecture
Gen Matsumura, 20, Osaka prefecture
Kotomi Tsuri, 27, Hyogo prefecture
Mare Tanaka, 17, Wakayama prefecture
Akari Okano, 19, Osaka prefecture
Genki Kojima, 18, Hyogo prefecture
Haruka Fukao, 18, Wakayama prefecture
Yuya Takahashi, 20, Tokyo prefecture
Naoto Sakura, 20, Tokyo prefecture
Juna Goto, 16, Hyogo prefecture
Inori Kojima, 20, Hyogo prefecture
Sachiho Tani, 18, Hyogo prefecture
Masanori Tojo, 27, Kaminoseki-cho, Yamaguchi prefecture
Saya Suga, 20, Saitama prefecture
Mui Kawano, 18, Tokyo prefecture
Kohei Fujiwra, 28, Tokyo prefecture
Mami Uchida, 27, Saitama prefecture
Yohei Kubo, 18, Osaka prefecture
Kokoro Kojima, 22, Hyogo prefecture
Masaaki Yamamoto, 22, Saitama prefecture
Luca Shimizu, 17, Miyagi prefecture

Email: hunger_strike_tokyo@yahoo.co.jp
Website: http://hungerstrike.jimdo.com

One of the organizers, Naoya Okamoto, also participated in a previous hunger strike in an effort to stop construction of the Kaminoseki nuclear power plant, which he discussed in a previous Ten Thousand Things post titled "Amidst hopeful signs, activists continue impassioned efforts to stop nuclear power plant in gorgeous Seto Inland Sea".

Photos and videos related to the hunger strike action may be seen on the official website, and support may be provided via the official Facebook page (in English) here.

The following video from Newsy, "Fukushima Six Months Later," provides excellent compiled footage from various news sources including Al-Jazeera and CBS regarding ongoing damage from the accident.



- Kimberly Hughes

Cities are Not Targets: A Petition for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons

Cities Are Not Targets (CANT) project Petition Drive

Please tell the nuclear powers that Cities Are Not Targets!

Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation

Mayors for Peace calls cities together to build a nuclear-weapon-free world.

Since our experience of the atomic bombing 62 years ago, Hiroshima has continually called for the abolition of nuclear weapons and realization of lasting world peace. Despite our efforts, many areas around the world remain trapped in chains of hatred, violence and retaliation, our planet still bristles with vast arsenals of nuclear weapons, and the probability that such weapons will be used is increasing.

In response to this crisis, Mayors for Peace, an NGO over which we preside that now has 1,578 member cities in 120 countries and regions, is conducting an emergency campaign to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2020 globally. This is our 2020 Vision Campaign.

The year 2006 was the 10th anniversary of the International Court of Justice advisory opinion that, “The threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, and in particular the principles and rules of humanitarian law.” Mayors for Peace marked this landmark finding by launching Phase II of our 2020 Vision Campaign.

The centerpiece of this phase is the Good Faith Challenge, a program for demanding that all governments abide by the other ICJ finding that, “There exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control.” As a further contribution by cities, we have also initiated a Cities Are Not Targets (CANT) project to demand assurances from nuclear weapon states that no cities are targeted for nuclear attack.

Nuclear weapons are illegal, immoral devices designed to obliterate entire cities. Despite the end of the Cold War, the danger of nuclear weapons remains virtually unchanged. We still have thousands of nuclear warheads deployed and ready to fire on warning. At the push of a button, nuclear-tipped missiles can be on their way to a target city. If such an event were to take place, some city, home to children and hundreds of thousands of innocent noncombatants, would suffer utter devastation.

The Mayors for Peace project is designed to lift the voices of cities and citizens to say, “No! You may not target cities. You may not target children.” Through these activities, we intend to bring to the attention of mayors, citizens and national leaders the fact that cities are, in fact, still being targeted for annihilation and the International Court of Justice has found this threat itself to be a war crime. Furthermore, we hope this project will intensify our demand that the nuclear-weapon states fulfill their promise to “negotiate in good faith” to abolish all nuclear weapons.

The goal of this project is not a shifting of nuclear weapons away from cities but their total elimination. And, when we speak here of “cities,” we refer not to a municipal entity of a certain size but to any area in which children and non-combatants are living routine daily lives.

Please participate in the petition drive associated with this project. Mayors for Peace will deliver your message to the nuclear-weapon states and to the United Nations. Let all peoples around the world come together and bequeath to our children a genuinely peaceful world free from nuclear weapons! Link to petition here.

Denise Levertov: "We must dare to win not wars, but a future in which to live."

...Let our different dream,

and more than dream, our acts

of constructive refusal generate

struggle. And love. We must dare to win

not wars, but a future

in which to live.

- Denise Levertov, concluding lines from her poem "A Speech for Antidraft Rally, D.C., March 22, 1980”

Commemorating 3/11 in Japan & 9/11 in the U.S.

Kamakura-based poet Alan Botsford's insightful post explores how 3/11 and 9/11 (falling in spring and fall equinox months) have become dates for commemorating and celebrating peace:

There are at least 100 demonstrations and events being planned in Japan for a no-nuke world...

Sept. 11 and March 11 are symmetrical, both dates falling in equinox months.

Charity Sale for Japan Disaster Relief - Sept. 10 & 17 @ Kyoto

IDRO volunteers setting up shop

International Disaster Relief Organization Japan, a Kyoto-based NPO, is holding another charity sale in Kyoto:

• Saturday 3rd September from 1 till 5pm.
• Saturday 10th September from 1 till 5pm.
• Saturday 17th September from 9 till 6pm.

For now IDRO is holding the sale at the ground floor of Kurochiku (corner of Shinmachi and Rokkaku) but they are still looking for a permanent place to set up shop. According to Deep Kyoto:

Over the next three Saturdays we will open up our shop three times. We want to sell as much stuff as we can, in order to quickly raise some funds, and also partly to make the next move a wee bit easier. As we don’t yet have any permanent storage space, for the time being we are not accepting anymore donated goods for sale. However, for sale we do have a lot of good books (all sorted by genre now so easier to browse), clothes, shoes, bags, toys, games, crockery, CDs, vinyl records, and electrical goods and they are going super cheap...

IDRO raised 170,000 yen in their last sale. All proceeds from this sale will also be used for relief efforts in northeastern Japan.

"The Indigenous Call: Take Back Our Future"

Brenda Norrell: Native Americans and First Nations were arrested Friday, Sept. 2, 2011, at the White House to send a message for President Obama to say "No!" to the Keystone XL Pipeline.

In the video, Gitz Crazyboy, First Nation Dene/Pikini (Blackfoot), Alberta, Canada, describes the threat of the tar sands for generations to come. The video includes images of Native Americans and First Nations arrested at the White House sit-in.

The pipeline would go across the heartland, and the massive Oglalla aquifer, from Canada to Texas, endangering the environment and generations to come. Already the Alberta tar sands are destroying the homeland of First Nations in Alberta.

Interfaith Pilgrimage for Peace for Jeju island & the Korean Peninsula earlier this year

Interfaith Pilgrimage for Peace for Jeju island and the Korean Peninsula earlier this year:

 

March 1, 2011 - Benediction for the Life, Peace, and Community in Korea Interfaith 100-day Pilgrimage from Jeju Island to the DMZ—for Life, Peace, & Community in the Korean Peninsula. The benediction was made in Gangjeong.

Dobub, a Buddhist monk who was born on Jeju Island, led the pilgrimage benediction on March 1. He engaged in dialogue with Fr. Kang Woo-Il, Chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea, & the bishop of the Catholic Jeju district, during the designation of Jeju as a "Peace Island" in 2007.

After the ceremony, the Life and Peace Fellowship visited Gangjeong village, to meet with the villagers and to spend the first night of the pilgrimage in the Gangjeong village.

Reverend Jeon of the Life and Peace Fellowship said, “Our organization opposes those things related to war. We oppose the naval base plan with the thought that the peace in the Korean peninsula and North East Asia will be threatened if it is built on Jeju Island." He added: “We are walking with our praying hearts.”