People are aware that they cannot continue in the same old way but are immobilized because they cannot imagine an alternative. We need a vision that recognizes that we are at one of the great turning points in human history when the survival of our planet and the restoration of our humanity require a great sea change in our ecological, economic, political, and spiritual values. - Grace Lee Boggs
Happy 97th Birthday, Grace Lee Boggs, born June 27, 1915!
Love Ruthie Iida's exuberant explanation of the meaning of the name"Hydrangea Revolution" at Kanagawa Notebook:
I did not hear the term “Hydrangea Revolution” until this morning, when I opened up Facebook to find a post from Jacinta [friend of Ruthie's, who lives in Tokyo], along with her own beautiful photographs of hydrangeas taken in her neighborhood. After reading that one post, the phrase seemed to pop up repeatedly, all day long.
The Friday demonstrations have been compared to the big, bold, brazen blooms ( are they not? nothing wimpy about hydrangeas) that are made up of myriads of tiny blossoms pressed together. What began as a series of small symbolic gatherings has become a huge, spirited protest that the media can no longer ignore...
I haven’t made it to Tokyo on a Friday yet, but I’m proud to be on the same side as such good people. I’m part of the big, brazen bloom….Woo-hooooo!
This amazing video of the 6.22.12 rally outside of the PM's house gives a sense of the enormity of feeling against nuclear restarts in Japan. Partipants are not simply chanting, but screaming "Saikado Hantai!" ("Against the Re-start!"), not in unison, but passionately, discordantly...
40-45,000 Japanese citizens rallied at the PM's house Friday evening to protest the restart of nuclear plants. Partipants chanted "Saikado Hantai!" ("Against the Re-start!").
Ongoing protests challenging Tokyo's inaction in Fukushima and the restart of the Oi nuclear reactors are taking place throughout Japan.
Plans for a 100,000-person march next Friday are in the making. Japanese are calling their movement for a nuclear-free Japan the "Hydrangea Revolution."
Today marks the 67th anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa, the only land battle on Japanese soil. Okinawans commemorated the lives of those who died during the Battle of Okinawa, and prayed for peace for Okinawa and the world.
After the battle's end, instead of bringing peace and democracy to Okinawa, the U.S. government positioned Okinawa as its military "Cornerstone of the Pacific." Soldiers seized ancestral farmland and homes ("by bayonets and bulldozers") from war survivors to make way for US military bases on 20% of the island's land mass. After fifty years of enduring the US expropriation of their land for war (Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq) training, Okinawans countered this unwelcome militarist moniker with their pacifist self-definition when they named a memorial erected on Mabuni Hill in Itoman the "Cornerstone of Peace" ( (平和の礎 Heiwa no Ishiji).
The massive monument was dedicated on June 23, 1995 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War and the Battle of Okinawa. Its purpose: (1) Remember those lost in the war, and pray for peace; (2) Pass on the lessons of war; and (3) Serve as a place for meditation and learning. Mabuni Hill was the site of the Japanese military headquarters and scene of heavy fighting in late June 1945, towards the end of the Battle of Okinawa. The names of over two hundred and forty thousand people, including Imperial Japanese and American soldiers, as well as over 100,000 innocent Okinawan civilians, who lost their lives are inscribed on the memorial:
It conveys to the Japanese as well as people of the world, the "spirit of peace" which has developed through Okinawa's history and culture. The names of all those who lost their lives in the Battle of Okinawa- regardless of their nationality or whether they ware of military or civilian status- are inscribed on "The Cornerstone of Peace," serving as a prayer for eternal world peace.
In late March 1945, a fierce battle such as has rarely been seen in history took place on these islands. The "Typhoon of Steel" that lasted for ninety days disfigured mountains, destroyed much of the cultural legacy, and claimed the precious lives of upward of 200,000 people. The Battle of Okinawa was the only ground fighting fought on Japanese soil and was also the largest-scale campaign of the Asia-Pacific War. Even countless Okinawan civilians were fully mobilized.
A significant aspect of the Battle of Okinawa was the great loss of civilian life. At more than 100,000 civilian losses far outnumbered the military death toll. Some were blown apart by shells, some finding themselves in a hopeless situation were driven to suicide, some died of starvation, some succumbed to malaria, while other fell victim to the retreating Japanese troops. Under the most desperate and unimaginable circumstances, Okinawans directly experienced the absurdity of war and atrocities it inevitably brings about.
This war experience is at the very core of what is popularly called the "Okinawan Heart," a resilient yet strong attitude to life that Okinawan people developed as they struggled against the pressures of many years of U. S. military control.
The "Okinawan Heart" is a human response that respects personal dignity above all else, rejects any acts related to war, and truly cherishes culture, which is a supreme expression of humanity. In order that we may mourn for those who perished during the war, pass on to future generations the historic lessons of the Battle of Okinawa, convey our message to the peoples of the world and thereby established, displaying the whole range of the individual war experiences of the people in this prefecture, the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum.
Come listen to the fabulous music and stories of Alicia Bay Laurel, author of the best-selling 1970 Living On the Earth, who will also be joined by the upbeat grooves of the Inoue Ohana band featuring Hawaiian and reggae style tunes.
An evening of warmth, love and vibrant energy not to be missed!!
Alicia Bay Laurel and Inoue Ohana: ‘Greetings from the Earth’
Friday, June 22nd, 2012
OPEN/START 19:00/20:00
Chikyuya in Kunitachi 地球屋＠国立市
Map アクセス: http://chikyuya.info/contents/access
Advance Price: 2000円
At the Door: 2500円
☆LIVE
・ INOUE OHANA (Hawaiian/reggae)
・ Alicia Bay Laurel (acoustic folk)
☆TALK
Alicia Bay Laurel
☆DJ
RAS FUKU
Alicia Bay Laurel's full Japan tour schedule:
http://www.aliciabaylaurel.com/2012japantour
Photo/video/highlights from a recent show of hers in Tokyo:
While the Japanese and local governments restart nuclear reactors throughout the country, Californians and Oregonians are joining hands with the 7.5 MILLION PLUS people in Japan demanding that Japan graduate from nuclear power.
While we are taking this action at the Japanese Consulate on June 22, the US government and the Obama administration continue to tell the people of California and the United States that the two nuclear plants in California at San Onofre and Diablo Canyon are safe and that the taxpayers should continue to subsidize the nuclear industry. We reject these policies and views and the lesson of Fukushima is that there is NO Safe Nuclear Power whether in Japan or the the 104 nuclear plants in the United States.
Los Angeles, California
June 22, 2012, at 3:00 pm at:Japanese Embassy in downtown L.A.
We will gather at 3PM with signs. We'll deliver a letter to the Prime minister's representative and at 4:45 we will participate in a Die-in, where we'll reenact what it is like to suffer from deadly radiation exposure. Body painting will be available to make people look like we are bleeding from our orifices (symptom of radiation exposure).
Alicia Bay Laurel performs "Rinpoche", asong that she wrote for Tibetan Buddhist masterKyabje Dorje Chang Kalu Rinpoche, which includes an enlightenment mantra, at his request
This past Sunday, in a home that doubles as a café and event space overlooking the stunning vistas of the Hachioji Basin in western Tokyo, one might have thought they had traveled back in time.
Accompanied to the backdrop of a flashing multi-colored light show, artist and author Alicia Bay Laurel—whose 1970 best-seller “Living On the Earth” has inspired generations of hippies and permaculturists across the planet—strummed her acoustic guitar and told fascinating stories of her life as a traveling artist.
“Over and over again, I watched people come to Hawaii and heal their bodies and spirits simply by absorbing the energy from the sun and the ocean,”she said, speaking of Maui island, her home for some 25 years. Her stay there served as the inspiration for her second book, “Being of the Sun”—described by Amazon as a “cult classic among nature-worshippers to this day”.
Laurel has earned a devoted following in Japan, where she has traveled nearly every year since 2006 to play music, sign individual copies of her books and CDs in her trademark flowing script, and collaborate with numerous artists, musicians and designers. She illustrated a book for bestselling author Banana Yoshimoto in 2010, and her works have helped raise funds for environmental nonprofit Artist Power Bank, as well as its sister project Kurkku, a complex of environmentally sustainable businesses. Her designs also helped raise funds for survivors following the 2011 disaster in Tohoku.
This past Sunday’s event, held at the aptly named Holistic Earth Café, indeed featured a distinctly Beatnik vibe. Guests were invited to try on and purchase hemp-based clothing, and the lineup of kitchen offerings even included fresh hemp pasta. “I could easily imagine myself in northern California in the 1960s, but here we are in present-day Tokyo,” Laurel commented. “The popularity of Living On the Earth never diminished in Japan, in large part because of the absolutely phenomenal community of people here who are committed to the ideas represented in the book.”
Event attendee, who told Laurel that he and his wife utilized the advice from her book to home-birth all three of their children
Laurel was joined by actress-turned-environmentalist Ikue Masudo (who was also a featured speaker at Harukaze 2010, a peace and sustainability event held in Tokyo). Masudo left the metropolitan capital several years ago to build an organic café and event space along the gorgeous shores of the Boso peninsula in Chiba prefecture, later going on to the island of Ishigaki in Okinawa, where she is now in the midst of creating a retreat and healing center. “My hope is that more and more people will become connected with the natural world, which will have positive repercussions for society on the whole,” she said, sharing her own personal story of becoming deeply inspired to change her life after filming television documentaries that featured swimming with dolphins in Hawaii and aboriginal communities in Australia.
Ikue Masudo
Sunday’s event, while unmistakably holding a vision for a better world, was most certainly not exclusively idealistic. Kathie Inoue, vocalist and ukulele player for the Hawaiian/reggae band Inoue Ohana, utilized the time in-between the band’s upbeat set to urge attendees to take action by adding their voices to citizen movements to end nuclear power and advocate alternative energies—including a recent worldwide petition urging Japan not to restart its nuclear reactors.
“There are many tools, including social networking sites like Facebook, that we can use to share information with each other and encourage positive social change,” she said, also echoing Laurel and Masuda with her message of simple living.
Kathie and Keni Inoue performing a chilled-out acoustic version of their song "Touch the Sun"
Alicia Bay Laurel and the full Inoue Ohana band play Yokohama Thumbs Up on June 21st, and Kunitachi Chikyuya on June 22nd. Laurel’s complete Japan tour schedule may be found on her website. In addition, this article provides a lovely introduction to her work and her long-standing connection with Japan.
...This beautiful song by Anja Light celebrates Japan's Candle Night held during the winter & summer solstices...
Japan’s Candle Night asks that people switch off their lights for two hours, from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. on the night of the summer solstice to enjoy the night in candlelight. Candle Night was inspired by the Voluntary Blackout movement in Canada, launched in 2001.
During the summer of 2008, facilities all over Japan to turned out their lights during two events: Black Illumination held on June 2 and Lights-Down at the Tanabata Star Festival on July 7. Between the two events, 149,939 facilities joined the campaign, reducing the amount of electricity used by approximately 2,371,786.51 kilowatts. This translated into saving 925 tons of CO2 emissions, equivalent to the total daily emission of 64,000 households.
The event has spread across the world. The Korean Environmental Women’s Network worked closely with Japanese Candle Night organizers to hold their own Candle Night. Events were also held in Taiwan, Australia, China (Shanghai), Mauritius, and many other countries.
