Sunday, March 11, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Tokyo Air Raid Lawsuit: The March 10, 1945 Fire (Napalm) Bombing of Tokyo's Residential Neighborhoods
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The Tokyo Air Raids
Tokyo Air Raid Lawsuit* Plaintiffs/Defense Counsel/Support Society
At the end of World War II, the US took a "scorched earth" strategy and attacked 150 cities in Japan. Other than the disastrous damage by atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Tokkyo suffered the worst damage of them all.
In November 1944, the US started the air raids on Tokyo by dispatching the newly produced B29 airplanes from the Mariana Islands. At first, the targets were focused on the area of military industry. However, at the beginning of 1945, the US started the indiscriminate bombing to massacre the general public. They dropped fire [napalm] bombs and bombshells every day and night.
On March 10, 1945, the US made a bombing raid in the Kotoh area in Tokyo where the working people resided. After that, the US spread the targets to residential areas. The deck planes joined the attacks. Tokyo was exposed to almost 130 such air raids.
At the beginning of World War II, however, it was Japan that started such indiscriminate bombing in China. Japan almost destroyed Chongqing and other cities. We should never forget it was the Japanese Army that deprived many precious lives of mothers and children.
The number of fatalities of air raids in Tokyo exceeded 115,000; the number of wounded 150,000. And more than 3,000,000 people became war sufferers. 60% of metropolitan Tokyo fell into ruins, leading to the ending of World War II.
Air Raid on March 10, 1945
On March 10, 1945, when the strong north wind was blowing, Tokyo became a scene of carnage.
At dawn on March 10, about 300 B29s carrying full loads of high explosive bombs flew at a very low altitude over Tokyo Bay and started the bombing by creating an encircling net around densely populated Kotoh. Then they launched a series of attacks over the people who had lost all means of escape.
The flames ran through the roads and enveloped the houses and crossed over the canals and the Sumida River. The eastern part of metropolitan Tokyo was totally enveloped with raging flames. Although the air raid ceased within two hours, more than 1,000,000 people lost their houses in fire; about 110,000 were wounded; and about 100,000 died in the canals, bridges, and on the burned land. Most of these were women, children, and elderly people who were definitely not in combatant service.
In the world history of wars, there was no record of 100,000 soldiers being killed in a few hours in one action. In a sense, Tokyo was "the forefront" of World War II.
In December 1964, General Curtis Emerson LeMay, who commanded the indiscriminate bombing on Tokyo, was decorated with the First Order of Merit with the Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun by the Japanese government recognizing "his effort to bring up the Self Defense Forces of Japan after the war."
Children confined in a cell so as not to escape from the war orphanage in Odaiba, Tokyo, July 1946. (Photo: Tokyo Air Raid Lawsuit Plaintiffs/Defense Counsel/Support Society)
*The Tokyo Air Raid Lawsuit is the first group lawsuit brought by civilian victims against the Japanese government for neglecting its duty to help civilians after the Tokyo air raid by US bombers on March 10, 1945. The plaintiffs are seeking an apology and reparation for the damages suffered, insisting that "We must never suffer these horrors of war again."
at the 2007 Global Article 9 Conference in Tokyo (Photo:JD)
The Great Tokyo Air Raid through Drawings
Artist: Kano Teruo
Location: Sumida River, Kototoi Bridge (Asakusa side)
Age at time of raid: 14
(Image: "That Unforgettable Day--The Great Tokyo Air Raid through Drawings あの日を忘れない・描かれた東京大空襲", The Asia-Pacific Journal)
On March 10, we fled from our home in Asakusa Ward’s Senzoku-cho to Sumida Park near the Kototoi Bridge. The park was a chaotic crowd of jostling people, and I got separated from my family. I jumped into the river because the sparks flying through the air made it so hot that I was having trouble breathing. I was able to wedge myself between the stones of one of the bridge’s supporting pillars. From there I could look up at the flames on the bridge above me and see people stuck on the railing. Every now and again red hot sheets of corrugated tinplate would fly off into the river.More at Japan Air Raids.org and Mark Selden's "A Forgotten Holocaust: US Bombing Strategy, the Destruction of Japanese Cities and the American Way of War from World War II to Iraq" at The Asia-Pacific Journal (historical and comparative analysis of the mass bombing of civilians).
With dawn, those of us who had survived under the bridge gathered. There were about twenty of us left. Everyone else had either burned to death or drowned.
I lost six family members that night, but my troubles were only beginning. I was discriminated against for decades as a war orphan and was forced to live at the lowest levels of society. I don’t even know who to blame for it. I just pray that those who haven’t experienced war will never have to go through that hell themselves.
The Center of the Tokyo Raid and War Damages exhibition of newly found photos runs until April 8
"Center to show photos of U.S. air raids from World War II":
More than 700 never-before-seen photos on the U.S. air raids during World War II, taken by an Imperial Japanese Army propaganda apparatus, will be displayed in Tokyo.For those who can't make it to the center in Tokyo's Koto War, Time is featuring an online gallery of some of the photographs.
Prints from 636 newly found negatives, as well as 79 photo panels, will be shown at the Center of the Tokyo Raid and War Damages in Koto Ward from Feb. 18...
A man who acquired Tohosha’s former office and darkroom in Tokyo found and kept about 17,000 negatives and donated them to the center last year.
The photos to be displayed show damage from the air raids, which lasted for half a year from November 1944, reconstruction work and life in the ruins of war.
In addition to homes and factories, downtown areas including Ginza and Hibiya and universities such as the Nippon Medical School, Keio University and Sophia University are photographed.
Some photos show damage from U.S. air raids on Hong Kong and Guilin in China, which were under Japanese occupation.
The special exhibition, in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the center’s opening, runs through April 8. Admission is 300 yen for adults and 200 yen for junior and senior high school students.
For more info, please visit The Center of the Tokyo Raid and War Damages website.
Friday, March 9, 2012
New York Peace Film Festival - this weekend @Unitarian Church, NYC
"Reconciliation Efforts Throughout World"
Sat. March 10 & Sun. March 11, 2012
1:00PM-9:00PM
UNITARIAN CHURCH OF ALL SOULS
1157 LEXINGTON AVENUE ((between 79th and 80th Streets)
Admission: $12 in advance/$15 at the door (cash only day-of)
The 5th Annual New York Peace Film Festival (NYPFF) commemorates the nuclear disaster in Fukushima with several films that address the issue of nuclear power and nuclear weapons.
The festival kicks off at 7:00 p.m. Friday night with a gala featuring several of the filmmakers whose works will be screened this weekend. These artists will have the opportunity to discuss their films. The kickoff party is free but an RSVP is requested. Send an e-mail to info@nypeacefilmfest.com or call 917.692.2210.
On Saturday and Sunday, festival organizers will screen ten films, including documentary shorts, full-length documentaries, an animated short, and the 1975 anti-nuke classic Who Will Be Next? which includes portions of an interview with Major General Charles Sweeney, the pilot of the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Saturday’s films focus on peace efforts in Africa and the Caribbean and reconciliation in Japan, and Sunday’s screenings are dedicated to the nuclear issue – both nuclear power and nuclear weapons.
In addition to Who Will Be Next?, there are three other Japanese-related films in the festival’s lineup.
In the documentary short Return to Hiroshima, Takashi Tanemori and his sister survived the Hiroshima bombing as children only to be estranged as adults for 50 years. Their reconciliation mirrors the forgiveness they promote in world affairs. Q&A with the filmmaker follows the screening.
Recruited from internment camps, Japanese Americans reflect on the accomplishments and the horrors of their battalion’s experience during World War II in 442: Live with Honor, Die with Dignity.
Ashes to Honey chronicles one Japanese island’s struggle to halt a nuclear power plant and build a sustainable future.
To purchase tickets in advance for each day’s festival, go to http://nypff2012.eventbrite.com/. Ticket prices, whether in advance or at the door, are for an entire day’s screenings.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Yamada 3.11 Remembrance Project Invites Solidarity Through Photos
As the one-year mark since Japan's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster approaches, a group of Tokyo-based activist filmmakers have launched a remembrance project based upon their travels to the town of Yamada-cho in Iwate prefecture, which was hard hit by the disaster. There, they have forged relationships with local individuals living in shelters and temporary housing units through simple, life-affirming actions such as cooking, singing, and sharing laughter and tears together during numerous trips to the region over the past year since the disaster struck.
Inspired by the solidarity vigils led by the Women in Black peace activists worldwide, the project invites individuals from around the world to share their thoughts on this occasion simply by sharing a meaningful photograph. Spearheading the project are the members of a filmmaking organization known as Feminist Active Documentary Video Festa (FAV).
From the project website:
YAMADA PROJECT: PHOTO RE-MEMBERING
‘Photo-graph’ is to draw with light
Pick a place and stand while you embrace your thoughts over the 3.11 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake/Tsunami, care for your loved ones or your hopes and dreams. When, where and how would you stand?
This project calls for anyone to take a photo while thinking of one’s own “Yamada” that is dear to you. The photos are strung together on the web like an infinitely spread quilt. You can join by simply taking a photo and sending it to us. Anyone is welcome to join!
Please take a picture of yourself standing and send it to yamada@renren-fav.org. The photos will be shared at http://www.renren-fav.org/yamada/eng/. The posting period is unlimited. You’re welcome to send your photos once or periodically.
Yamada Project:
This project began as one of the members of FAV visited the tsunami affected town of Yamada in Iwate Prefecture soon after the Great East Japan Earthquake in order to volunteer to cook for the evacuees. The project is comprised of two separate activities, photo + film. The film project is motivated by a wish to keep in touch with the survivors and is built on a cycle of filming and screening in Yamada. “Yamada” is a common name in Japan that could be any place or anyone. Where or who is it that would be dear to YOU? The photo project has developed in this period leading up to one year after the disaster, so as to photograph this moment in which one stands with thoughts of each of our “Yamada.” The photographs are strung together like an infinitely spreading quilt on the web. The idea of “standing in silence” was inspired by the Women in Black standing action.
Women In Black:
A world-wide network of women committed to peace with justice and actively opposed to injustice, war, militarism and other forms of violence. It is not an organization but a means of communicating and a formula for action. It s actions often take the form of women wearing black, standing in a public place in silence.
http://www.womeninblack.org/en/vigil
Feminist Active Documentary Video Festa (FAV):
FAV brings to you a collection of outspoken and larger-than-life films from a feminist perspective. Started in 2005, it’s a creative space made possible by organizers, film-makers, and audiences working together.
www.renren-fav.org
** PLEASE SEND YOUR PHOTOS AND SPREAD THIS WIDELY **
The blog of FAV member Miho Tsujii includes a video and English-translated lyrics of the moving song "Here Lives My Heart" by vocalist Fumika Takahashi, which was written on behalf of tsunami survivors.
An event will be held at 7pm on Weds Mar 28th at Waseda Hoshien Liberty Hall where Takahashi will perform, and FAV members will screen their footage from Yamada-cho.
- Kimberly Hughes
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Popcorn Homestead: Early Spring Farmers' Markets in Tokyo
Via Kurushii via Joan Bailey's Popcorn Homestead, comprehensive list of farmers' markets in Tokyo this month, including Omote-sando's Gyre Market and Kichijoji's new Earth Day Market in dreamy Inokashira-koen.
More on the Kichijoji market (all organic, all fair trade) in Inokashira Koen at the latest post at Popcorn Homestead:
Many of our usual favorite vendors were there - Cocira with her most excellent bamboo charcoal cleaning product, BioFarm with the usual selection of beautiful greens and the scrumptious roasted potatoes pictured above, Kitagawen with their lovely organic teas, and Miyamotoyama with their mouth-watering homemade mochi, miso, and natto - along with a bundle of new folks selling everything from plants and seeds to jewelry, jams, an assortment of grains, vinegars, miso and shitake, along with jewelry and yarn.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Thich Nhat Hanh: "You carry Mother Earth within you."
You carry Mother Earth within you. She is not outside of you. Mother Earth is not just your environment. In that insight of inter-being, it is possible to have real communication with the Earth, which is the highest form of prayer. In that kind of relationship you have enough love, strength and awakening in order to change your life.
Changing is not just changing the things outside of us. First of all we need the right view that transcends all notions including of being and non-being, creator and creature, mind and spirit. That kind of insight is crucial for transformation and healing.
Fear, separation, hate and anger come from the wrong view that you and the earth are two separate entities, the Earth is only the environment. You are in the centre and you want to do something for the Earth in order for you to survive. That is a dualistic way of seeing.
So to breathe in and be aware of your body and look deeply into it and realise you are the Earth and your consciousness is also the consciousness of the earth. Not to cut the tree not to pollute the water, that is not enough.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh, "Beyond Environment: Falling Back in Love with Mother Earth", Guardian
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Japanese Farmers: “We will continue farming on Japanese soil!”
(2011 Peace Walk from Tokyo to Hiroshima: "Every year, NOUMINREN participates in Peace Walk that starts from Tokyo to Hiroshima. This year‘s walk was very special. In the opening ceremony, Fukushima NOUMINREN member, Hiroshi Miura, spoke. He said, 'My rice fields are 11 km away from the power plants, so I won’t be able to grow rice in my fields anymore in my life. This accident proved that nuclear power plants and human beings cannot coexist. I am committed to continue life-growing farming in a new place and continue making efforts to eliminate the nuclear power plants one by one!' He joined the march and called for abolition of nuclear arsenals and the change in energy policy. Photo: NOUMINREN) Nouminren (Japan Family Farmer Movement), represents one of thousands of NGOs in Japanese civil society committed to the visionary integration of the best of traditional and postwar Japanese values: simplicity, sustainable agriculture, preservation of local culture and communities, democratic society, constitutional (Article 9) commitment to nonviolent solutions to international conflict, gender equality, human rights, nuclear weapons and energy abolition, environmental protection, and social justice.
Under siege by the nuclear fallout of 3/11 and the threat of the possible TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership "free trade") agreement that would allow heavily subsidized, factory-farmed, genetically engineered, chemically (toxic herbicides and pesticides) treated, cheap foreign food products to flood Japanese markets, thereby threatening the position of high-quality, labor-intensive, organic, locally grown, therefore more expensive Japanese heirloom food products), Nouminren issued this statement via Via Campesina:
“We will continue farming on Japanese soil!”
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
NOUMINREN Youth held its 20th conference in Tokyo on February 11th and 12th this year. Approximately 100 people participated in the conference (the largest ever). For NOUMINREN, this conference was probably its most important in last 20 years as it was the first conference after 3.11 earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear plant accidents. All participants were eager to share and reflect on what they underwent after 3.11 and to use these understandings to overcome their concerns.
On the first day, a forum was held to discuss the issue, "Why we must continue farming on Japanese soil: Understanding how nuclear power plants and the Trans-Pacific Partnership might to destroy us."
In this forum, five panelists (three farmers, one food researcher, and one local community activist) presented their commitment to protect agriculture and food sovereignty of Japan.
The first panelist, Souhei Miura, reported that after the disaster and nuclear power plant accident, he evacuated to Chiba prefecture. However, he decided to go back to Fukushima to farm again. He said, “It is possible to produce safe food in Fukushima if we continue doing the checkups. Nuclear power plant accidents can happen anywhere in the world today, so why don’t I stay and farm in Fukushima, the prefecture I love the most.” This commitment moved many in the audience.
The second panelist, Sumito Hatta, the Director in Chief of the NOUMINREN Food Research Laboratory, discussed its role. He explained that the laboratory’s role is to use scientific methods to enhance the safety of agricultural products and to strengthen the fiduciary relation between producers and consumers. “This is how we can contribute to Japanese agriculture,” Sumito Hatta said.
He also stated that TPP is trying to deregulate the mandatory labeling rule for GM food. “We want to make a new project checking up GM food and the GM rape seeds that falls from shipping trucks. He also explained about the role of the radioactive detector purchased with donations from the people from Japan and the world. He emphasized the importance of sharing all data with everyone who needs it.
The third panelist, Noriyuki Takahashi, a young farmer from Wakayama prefecture, explained why he was such a strong supporter of making soil. He explained that because he wanted to produce delicious and safe crops, he realized the importance of making soil and bokashi (organic fermented fertilizer). He also described how he uses the dumped food from supermarkets to make fertilizer. In concluding, Noriyuki Takahashi stated that “Friendship between living things and soil is important. I am pursuing the farming technique that makes not only human, but every living thing happy.”
The fourth panelist, Ken Aizawa, a farmer from a heavy-snowy mountainous area of Niigata prefecture explained how much he enjoyed farming in such difficult conditions. He said that it takes 2 to 3 times more effort to do weeding on his farm and the results from harvesting are also low. However as Ken Aizawa also pointed out, in such mountainous areas, people are very bonded and he wants the bond to continue. He concluded that consumers buying domestic products will unite cities and rural areas.
The fifth panelist, Shinya Takeda, a staff member of international bureau of NOUMINREN and an organizer of Toke Saturday Market (street artist market) in Chiba prefecture explained why consumers should take a strong interest in agriculture He said there were three main reasons why consumers should support the farmers: (1) because food is essential for humans, (2) because local agriculture is essential for the economy of rural areas, and (3) because sustainable agriculture is essential for keeping the beauty and value of the rural landscape and stopping climate change. He concluded that farming is the most basic human activity, and therefore, “We, both producers and consumers should always respect it”.
After the presentations, the conference participants were divided into 10 groups and had 90-minute group discussion. The members of the groups were a mix of farmers, distributors, consumers, and NOUMINREN secretariats.
Each had a different story to share about the threat of TPP and radioactivity to our food safety.
One of the farmers said that since the accident, he has had a hard time to confidently tell the consumers that his crops are safe to eat, and so he has lost his motivation to grow. A shiitake mushroom farmer from Tako, Chiba prefecture, also shared that he is worried that radiation may be detected in his mushrooms that he planted after the accident. He explained that the direct sale to shops in his town dropped by one-third. A rice farmer from Ibaragi prefecture said that although he grows rice, he is hesitant to give the rice to his newborn baby. A vegetable farmer in Fukushima said that he feels relieved being outside of Fukushima because he does not have to hear all the discussions about radioactivity on the radio.
All the stories were something that would never have been expected when last year’s conference was held. All participants realized that they went through a really tough situation and are still facing it.
In the reception following the panel discussion, the participants talked about their concerns to continue farming and their future dreams. By talking to the people in the same generation, the participants’ dreams prevailed over their concerns and made the conference very happy and energetic to the end, and actually becoming stronger after the conference.
Earthquake, tsunami, typhoon, and radioactive crisis have hit us, and sooner or later a volcano will erupt as some of the scholars predict. But we, the NOUMINREN youth, will continue farming on Japanese soil.
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