Pointing out that the Futenma relocation plan and the planned construction of helipads in Higashison-Takae in Okinawa -- part of a bilateral deal to return part of the U.S. training ground -- could infringe on the racism convention, in its questionnaire the U.N. panel asks the Japanese government how it plans to respond to the voices of local residents.
The report also urges the Japanese government to abrogate its proposal to construct a U.S. military base in Henoko and Oura Bay, the ecologically fragile habitat of the Okinawan dugong, and six new helipads in Takae.
Second, regarding the Ryukyuan/Okinawan people, the Government of Japan has not implemented the recommendations of the UN Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which call on the government to recognize Ryukyuan/Okinawan people as an indigenous people. As a result, as reported by UN Special Rapporteur Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Doudou Diene, the heavy presence of the U.S. military bases in Okinawa remains as a form of discrimination against the people of Okinawa. At present, two new military base construction proposalss are being carried out under the agreement between the governments of Japan and the U.S., despite the longtime opposition from local indigenous peoples’ communities.
What is interesting to a food safety expert is the actual data showing the contamination levels consumers face. Anything else is speculation, and of course there is a lot of that after such a huge disaster. The data from actual measurements done in Japan with state-of-the-art detectors over the past 12 months present a very interesting picture.
This short documentary features Prof. Yang Yoon-Mo, South Korea's most renowned film critic, speaking from Jeju Island's southern coast.
Prof. Yang is now being held in a Jeju prison where he is undertaking a protest fast against the illegal military seizure and destruction of the private property of the Gangjeong villagers; the violent intimidation of villagers, clergy and other supporters challenging the illegality of the state seizure; and the military destruction of Jeju Island's most beautiful coast.
On Jan. 30, 2012, he was arrested when he crawled underneath a naval base construction dump truck. He was on probation from a 2011 prison term. During imprisonment he underwent a hunger strike for 76 days.
He told a local newspaper, “At the time of prison fast last year, [Catholic] Bishop Kang Woo-Il persuaded me to stop the fast but as the situation has become different, I will not stop it.”
“Unless the Navy stops its law-transcending illegal construction, my fast will not be stopped either. I will process a hunger strike struggle to accomplish a faith that the Jeju should remain as the demilitarized Island of Peace.”
A volunteer in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture reflects on the disaster
Could you imagine being here when the earthquake came?
At first you would shake and feel kinda safe,
but then pretty soon you saw a wave coming at your face.
And that tsunami,
Oh mommy!
It’s coming at a face pace.
Maybe you would’ve ran,
but the waves they chased.
And pretty soon you would’ve stopped turned around and shaked.
Maybe in your last time you would’ve thought “oh shit!”
but been glad to be taken away by something magnificent.
Mother Nature had his way,
I said his but I meant her,
But the power thing that she does
Got some people disturbed.
Now I’m looking around the earth that’s scorched.
I can imagine before that a lot of kids would talk.
People playin with their dogs, everybody be happy.
But now we have silence and the ocean and ….
I’ve been around this town and it really hurts my core,
‘Cause the houses that was there, they’re not there any more.
And the people that live there, they’re somewhere else, misplaced.
But a lot of them now got happy smiles on their face
‘Cause there’s a lot of volunteers who came down today,
and they’ve been doing that for a year, or so they say.
So I feel pretty glad to be doing my thing.
I was working and lifting, and now I’m doing it with sing
-ing songs or rapping, how ever you call it.
And if you thought this was stupid,
your attitude is appalling.
We got some garbage over there.
We’ve got garbage piles stacked up high.
A lot of people rest in peace.
They are probably up in the sky.
And it’s cold out here now
but I can remember back then
in Tokyo, blackouts.
I said, “Again?”, but then I thought,
or at least I was reminded that the people up here at no heat,
so I got silent, turned off mine,
used my girl to make some friction,
‘cause I knew the electricity was being distributed
to the people who live around here.
I’m sorry I lost my flow, but you know what, I don’t care
‘cause right now I see a lot of despair in the air.
I see nothing here,
I see nothing there,
I see nothing everywhere,
It’s like, damn, shit…
Now I know it’s been awhile,
so you don’t want to give out donations,
But they still need help,
Don’t be mistaken
And we’re gonna end our rap with a couple of moments of silence.
Listen to the waves, and think if you was there, how would you survive it.
The rhymer above, known as Rhyming Gaijin, will attempt the record ‘Longest freestyle rap' to raise money for disaster recovery. Information below and more at this link:
The current record is 12 hours exactly. So he has to go for more than 12 hours. On March 11th 2012, we will start this challenge at 6:00am in Tamaplaza. Then we will arrive to Shibuya around 11am. We will have some charity events in Shibuya and he will stay few hours at each event. If he can keep raping until 6pm he will beat the record. But he will keep raping untill he can't rap anymore so we don't know what time we will end this challenge. This challenge is to raise money for a charity for remembering the 3/11 earthquake. We will be donating all the money to Its Not Just Mud http://itsnotjustmud.com/
It is our desire for people to utilize the song, "human ERROR" by "FRYING DUTCHMAN" during the humanERROR parade, as a sort of memorial to the victims of the 2011 Japan earthquake, as well as to deepen the considerations we must make towards the decommissioning and phasing out of nuclear power plants. By sharing these feelings and spirit, your participation in this event of freedom, we hope it will spread throughout the world.
Where to play this song:
Please play this song wherever you are; in the streets, shops, your car, your friend’s or colleagues’ cars. Even if you are alone at home, please play this tune in your room.
Of course, if you are at a large-scale gathering, such as a demonstration, rally, exhibition, etc., we hope humanERROR will be noticed.
But participation is not limited to where there are many people. Even listening on your media player, or your smartphone, pc, etc. is participation in the humanERROR parade.
●The parade kicks off on March 10 at noon (12:00 p.m.).
By playing “HumanERROR” at these events, you can spread this movement to even more people. During these 2 days, create a “virtualparade” by playing “HumanERROR” over and over. Share the music with friends and family memberswho haven’ t discovered it yet but who share your desire for a safe and peaceful world.
On March 11 (Saturday) at 1:00 p.m., at the Tidanowa Festival in Okinawa, all of us in Frying Dutchmanwill perform “HumanERROR” with all our soul for all of Japan. You can watch this performance live onUstream and synchronize your feelings with like-minded people all over the world. We believe thatrevolution begins when people’ s hearts unite.
Tokyo Air Raid Lawsuit Plaintiffs/Defense Counsel/Support Society poster. (Image: Teruo Kano)
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."
Tokyo Air Raid Lawsuit* Plaintiffs/Defense Counsel/Support Society booth at the 2007 Global Article 9 Conference in Tokyo (Photo:JD)
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
