Tokyo Waka: A (cinematic) poem about a city, its people, and 20,000 crows

Thanks to Aki Gibbons, SF-based visual artist and writer, who blogs  at Tokyo Dreaming and Okinawa Blue, for the head's up on Tokyo Waka: A City Poem, screening at the International Buddhist Film Festival, which opens in San Francisco today.

A  meditative exploration of Tokyo and post-Bubble, post-3/11 Japan.

New York Peace Film Festival - Saturday, March 9 - Sunday, March 10, 2013

English version of "Barefoot Gen's Hiroshima" trailer! 

Showtime: Sat. March 9, 2013 @ 7:00pm.

 Director, Yuko Ishida will join us from Tokyo 

and we'll also connect to Hiroshima via Skype for Q and A!

Hirotoshi Iha explains the "Heart of Okinawa"

On September 4, 1955 – exactly 40 years to the day before the 1995 gang kidnapping, beating, and rape of a 12-year old Okinawan girl – an American soldier, Sergeant Isaac Hurt, kidnapped Yumiko Nagayama as she was walking to kindergarten. Then he raped her, disemboweled her, and threw her into a military base garbage dump. Less than a week later, another US soldier raped another child. 

The rape-murder of Yumiko-chan  took place during "Bayonets and Bulldozers" – a period of US forced seizure and destruction of 50,000+acres of land (including entire villages), to make build military complexes across the islands. The seizures – usually at gunpoint – left 250,000 Okinawans homeless and without means of livelihood.  Because the US did not allow Okinawans any real legal protections, Okinawans had no legal recourse against the US military violations of their property rights and human rights.

Okinawan mass protests, marches, and sit-ins date back to this period because the people had no legal power to resist the US use of force against them.  The pattern of American soldiers taking young girls from civilian houses at gunpoint to rape (and even murder them) began during the early days of the US occupation of Okinawa and worsened during the 1950's violent period of "Bayonets and Bulldozers."  At this time, the US military rape of women and children became synonymous with the rape-like taking and destruction of their land.

The 1955 murder of Yumiko-chan outraged the Okinawan public, sparking what Okinawan  Moriteru ARASAKI calls the first wave of the Okinawa Struggle for human rights and property rights. Okinawan resistance culminated in the 1956 "island-wide struggle" (shimagurumi toso) challenging US military  domination.

Korean American filmmaker Annabel Park's five-minute video interview of Hirotoshi Iha brings us back to 1955 by illuminating how deeply Okinawns have been injured by the pattern of US violent violations of human rights, land rights, and also why the US and Japanese governments have never been able to extinguish the Okinawan struggle for rights, self-determination, safety from US military violence, and peace.

Filmed in Takae in 2010, Mr. Iha explains why he became an activist and the deep meaning of the "Heart of Okinawa."  Yumiko-chan was his cousin.

The life-long activist then explains why the majority of Okinawans don't want  Futenma training base "transferred" to Henoko: "because we know the human cost of it."

"The Okinawa Problems" - Tokyo Symposium - Feb. 23, 2013

Via Okinawa Outreach:

The Okinawan Problems” will be discussed in Tokyo as Prime Minister Abe visits Washington


On February 23, Okinawan residents, scientists and environmentalists will gather and hold a symposium “The Okinawan Problems” in Asakusa, Tokyo to discuss the alarming situations of environment degradation, US military bases, and rampant development in Okinawa. The symposium is intended to raise national awareness about how these situations are closely related, derived from the unfair US-Japanese security relationship.

The symposium takes place at a critical time for Okinawa. It coincides with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Washington. Mr. Abe is expected to tell President Barack Obama that, with the completion of the Japanese government’s Environment Impact Assessment, their plan to construct a US military base in Henoko and Oura Bay is on track. The symposium will rebuff the results of the EIA. Meanwhile, the Japanese government’s recent listing of the Amami and Ryukyu (Okinawa) Islands on its Tentative List for UNESCO World Natural Heritage Sites provides a new twist to these Okinawan Problems. The symposium will discuss the implications of this new development as well.

Date and Time:  February 23, 2013, 13:00-17:00
Place: Taito kumin kaikan (2-6-5 Hanakawado, Taito Ward, Tokyo)

Main Features:　
-Mr. Hiroshi Ashitomi (“Henoko Tent Village”) updates the Henoko situation.

-Mr. Masatsugu Isa (Takae, Higashi village) discusses the construction of “helipads” for the US Osprey aircraft in the forest of Yambaru.

-Dr. Mariko Abe (the Nature Conservation Society of Japan) reports on the massive blue coral and new shrimp and crab species recently discovered in Oura Bay.

CONTACT:
Hideki Yoshikawa
Citizens’ Network for Biodiversity in Okinawa
Tel: 090-2516-7969
Email: yhidekiy(atmark)gmail.com

3/11 Anniversary Remembrance by Beautiful Energy • 3/11 • Tokyo & Anywhere in the World

Via our friend, Jacinta Hin


下の方に簡単な日本語版があります。また編集します！

We are planning a series (day) of events on March 11 both in remembrance of the Tohoku Earthquake, Tsunami and the Fukushima Nuclear Plant disaster, and in support of the global stand for a nuclear-free world.
Please join us on this special day, either in person or remote from anywhere in the world.

Join in person, in Tokyo:

We will get together from 1.30pm in Yoyogi Park. At 2.46pm, the time that the Earthquake struck, we stand still in silence and meditation to honor those who lost their lives and everyone affected by the horrendous events of March 11.

From 6pm we will get together for an evening of candlelight, music and…being peacefully together with people who share the vision for a nuclear-free Japan and world.

簡単な日本語版です。後日また編集します。
来る3/11に、私たちは連続したイベントを計画しています！
東北震災や津波や福島の原発事故を忍び、世界中で核をもたないことに賛成している人たちに
賛同し、支持するためのイベントです。この特別な日にぜひ皆さんでご参加ください！
イベントに直接お越しいただいても、遠隔で世界中からこのイベントページに参加いただく形も
大歓迎です！

直接お越しいただける方：
3/11　13：30～　代々木公園集合
14：26　震災が起きた時刻ちょうどに黙とうを
ささげ、震災でお亡くなりになった方や被災した方々
のために瞑想します。

18：00～　キャンドルライトや音楽などで平和をいのり、
核のない日本や世界へのビジョンをピースフルに共有します！
（場所や正確な時間は後日ＵＰします。）

Join from anywhere in the world:

We want to create a chain of 311 candles around the globe. People can join the chain anytime on March 11, preferable from 2.46pm Japan time onward. For this we will be inviting people from around the world to participate. Please help us by suggesting anyone or any groups who might be interested. Post here or facebook message or email Jacinta (jacinta.hin@embrace-transition.com).

More details will be announced shortly.

About us:

Beautiful Energy is an IMA project and movement born out of the weekly Friday anti-nuclear demonstrations in Tokyo in front of and around the Prime Minister Residence and Parliament. Through inspired, peaceful action we stand for a nuclear-free world that thrives on renewable energy. Our current, ongoing project is Candles for Peace. Every Friday, from 6-8pm Japan time, we gather in front of parliament in kokkai gijido, joining the weekly anti-nuclear protest, and create a beautiful display of candlelight to symbolize our intentions. Intrepid Model Adventures (IMA) is a nonprofit, open community of hundreds, supporting thousands, standing for positive social change. IMA members share a desire to help and strive to live their lives in such a way that they may act as a positive influence.

Visit our Facebook pages: https://www.facebook.com/BeautifulEnergyTokyo
https://www.facebook.com/groups/BeautifulEnergy/

Cactus Brothers performance: "Shadows of the Atomic Bomb" @ Kyoto - Jan 13 & 14, 2013

CACTUS BROTHERS is performing "Shadows of the Atomic Bomb"  原爆の影  at the Kyoto Prefectural Center for Arts and Culture (on Kawaramachi across from Kyoto Furitsu Hospital) this Sunday, Jan. 13 1800 and on Monday, Jan. 14 1000. 

 "Shadows of the Atomic Bomb" 原爆の影 is a satire on the US military establishment and its nuclear program.

The play is FREE.

Happy New Year! 明けましておめでとうございます｡

(Kagami Mochi Cat: http://2ya.sblo.jp/article/34490907.html)

IMAGINE PEACE

Via Yoko Ono:

New York Times - 1 Jan 2013

IMAGINE PEACE

love, yoko

Keiji Nakazawa: "For humanity, the greatest treasure is peace."

Keiji Nakazawa, the author of "Barefoot Gen," had died (1939-2012). 
The drawing in the photograph reads "For humanity, the greatest treasure is peace." 

(Keiji Nakazawa (March 14, 1939 – December 19, 2012) was a Japanese manga artist and writer. He was born in Hiroshima, where he lived during the Pacific War.  The cartoonist survived the US nuclear bombing of the city in 1945. All of his family, who had not been evacuated, died from the bombing.

 In 1961, Nakazawa moved to Tokyo to become a full-time cartoonist for manga anthologies.

 Following the death of his mother in 1966, Nakazawa began to memorialize the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima  in his stories.  Nakazawa's major work, "Hadashi no Gen" (Barefoot Gen) (a ten-volume series) explored the nuclear bombing and its aftermath, and examined the Japanese government's militarization of Japanese society during World War II.  "Barefoot Gen was adapted into two animated films and a live action TV drama.

Nakazawa was diagnosed with lung cancer and in July 2011.

"They Don't Want You to Know What is Going On": Performance Artists Noora Baker and Yoshiko Chuma Bring Pain of Palestinian Reality onto Tokyo Stage

Japan-born, New-York based performance artist Yoshiko Chuma, founder of the School of Hard Knocks, and Noora Baker, a dancer with the El Funoun company in Ramallah, Palestinian territories, teamed up this week to bring a powerful message to a Tokyo audience in a small theater in Sangenjaya. 

Titled "Love Story, Palestine", the multi-media show featured Chuma and Baker performing to the backdrop of imagery from 6 Seconds in Ramallah, the show performed during Chuma's recent visit to Palestine with a team of other Japanese musicians and artists, including genre-bending violinist Aska Kaneko and singer Sizzle Ohtaka. Interspersing the performance were hauntingly gorgeous vocals from Ohtaka, who was live in the house, as well as a frank conversation between Chuma and Baker about a reality that few outsiders know.

Baker recounted stories of relatives and friends arrested on a constant basis by Israeli occupation officers--often with little or no justification. "In addition to the regular checkpoints that we all must pass through, they suddenly also sometimes erect barriers so that you cannot pass,"Baker recounted. "They do not care even if they are separating families." She relayed a story of being detained at age seven with a group of other children and having tear gas thrown at her by authorities simply because she happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

In response to Chuma's question whether her troupe could possibly face arrest if their visits to Palestine continued, Baker responded, "Yes, the action of simply visiting Palestine on multiple occasions is enough to draw yourself into the spotlight and possibly face detention by Israeli authorities. They don't want you to know what is going on."

Chuma then went on to point out the similarities existing between Palestine and Fukushima following last year's nuclear accident, wherein people truly have no idea what is actually going on. "Both places appear normal from the outside, but in reality, they are not."

                                    Yoshiko Chuma (center) with audience members in Tokyo

The latest news about Yoshiko Chuma and the School of Hard Knocks may be read on her blog.

An interesting review of "Love Story, Palestine" may also be read in Dance Magazine here.

--Kimberly Hughes

Related posts on this blog:

Speakers contemplate Palestinian human rights, urge action at Tokyo event

Live theater performers from Iraq and Tunisia bring deep emotion, human connection to Tokyo stage

"War Makes People Insane": Dramatic work by performance artist Tari Ito lays bare the realities of military sexual violence