2010 Events

2010 Events
Past Events

January 30 (Sat.)

Film Screening
"The Sirota Family and the 20th Century"
1:30 PM Japanese Version
3:30 PM English Version

Location: Peace Philosophy Centre, Vancouver, BC
RSVP by January 27
Admission by Donation (suggested: $5) Snack donations are welcome.
Organized by: Vancouver Save Article 9 and Peace Philosophy Centre

* This is also the first Peace Philosophy Salon of 2010.February 13 (Sat.)
White Rock Peace Group February 27 - March 2 in St. Louis and Independence, Missouri
The Global Forum: On the Future of Nuclear Weapons

February 27 and 28:
Film Screening "Japan's Peace Constitution" followed by discussion led by Satoko NorimatsuMarch 1:
Mr. Truman Meets Hiroshima on the Future of Nuclear Weapons, 1945 - 2020
Originatimg from Harry S. Truman Museum and Library (Independence, MO)
and Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (Hiroshima, Japan)* Satoko acts as a moderator of a Q & A session.

March 2:
International Studies Symposia
"Japan: Living with the 'Peace Constitution" for 63 Years"Webster University, St. Louis, MO
Speaker: Satoko Norimatsu, Director of Peace Philosophy Centre

March 20 (Sat.)
Peace Philosophy Salon (Student-Led)
"Foreigners in Japan"
The report of the above salon is here.

April 10 (Sat.)
1:30 PM -
White Rock Peace GroupPeace Quilt, and the 65th Anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa
Contact whiterock@peacephilosophy.com for detailsApril 24 (Sat.)
Vancouver Save Article 9Film Screening at Roundhouse Community Centre
"The Sirota Family and the 20th Century"

Events in New York City (NPT Review Conference)

April 30 and May 1
NGO Conference at Riverside Church(Peace Philosophy Centre and Vancouver Save Article 9 will host a workshop in collaboration with HANWA, Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition)

May 3

UN NPT Review Conference Start (- May 28)(A-bomb exhibit at UN Lobby)

May 4
Symposium "The Wisdom of the Survivor"(Peace Philosophy Centre is a co-sponsor)

June 2
"Determined for a World Without Nuclear Weapons: an Evening with Sachi Rummel, a Hiroshima Witness" At Roundhouse Community Centre, Vancouver
Vancouver Save Artile 9 and Peace Philosophy Centre

June 12
White Rock Peace Group
NPT Review Conference in New York
Speaker: Satoko Norimatsu


July 30 - August 11
Hiroshima/Nagasaki Peace Studies Tour

September 11 (Sat.)

Seeking for Peace

- Marking the 100th Year of Japan's Annexation of Korea

With three guest speakers
Hwang Kay, Kim Sung Joon, and Pae Ann
1:30 - 3:30
Roundhouse Community Centre, Vancouver
Orgnized by Vancouver Save Article 9/Endorsed by Peace Philosophy Centre
September 18 (Sat.)

White Rock Event "Food Safety"
1:30 PM -
Details: whiterock@peacephilosophy.com

October 4 (Mon.)
A post-screening discussion with
Linda Hoaglund, Director of Film "ANPO" of Vancouver International Film Festival
6:45 - 8:15
Roundhouse Community Centre
Organized by: Peace Philosophy Centre and Vancouver Save Article  9
October 16 (Sat)
An Evening with Gavan McCormack
"The Battle of Okinawa 2010 - Japan - U.S. Relationship at a Crossroad"
Location: Peace Philosophy Centre
Organized by: Peace Philosophy Centre and Vancouver Save Article 9

December 19 (Sun.)
Japan Focus/Okinawa University Forum: "Where is Okinawa Going?"
Organized by: Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus/Okinawa University Institute of Regional Studies
Co-sponsored by: Okinawa BD and Peace Philosophy Centre

International Human Rights Day Student Symposium

Here is my closing plenary speech at the International Human Rights Day Student Symposium, organized by Vancouver School Board and BC ALPHA. I would like to express sincere thanks to Thekla Lit and Angela Brown to allow me to be part of this important event, and congratulations for the great success of the event.

International Human Rights Day Student Symposium
Theme: Human Rights in the Asia-Pacific 1931-1945

December 10 and 11, 2009 at Vancouver School Board

Closing Plenary: Towards Peace & Reconciliation – Endeavours of Human Rights & Peace Activists in Japan

Satoko Norimatsu, Director, Peace Philosophy Centre

December, 72 years after
Thank you ALPHA and Vancouver Board of Education for this opportunity to speak to high school students and teachers. This time of December is an emotional time for me, as this is the time when the Japanese Imperial Army invaded Nanking, 72 years ago, leading into the series of massive war crimes now known as the Rape of Nanking. I think about the people of Nanking, who spent sleepless nights with the fear of night-time air-bombing. I think about the people who drowned in the freezing water of Yangtze River trying to escape. I think about the people in the surrounding farming communities, where food was stolen, fire was set on the houses, women were raped and killed, and men were falsely accused of being soldiers and executed.

The Japanese military assault of Nanking actually started earlier on August 15th of the same year. Most Japanese people remember August 15 as the anniversary of the end of the war, but few know that was the day when the 20 bombers of the Japanese Imperial Navy left its base in Nagasaki for the first air-bombing of the city, the beginning of the over 50 such raids leading up to the city’s occupation on December 13.

In 1937, my father was a 10 year-old elementary school student in Tokyo. My mother was only to be born in the following year. Our family connection with China was my grandfather, who was a scholar of Chinese Literature. He lived in Hankou, part of the city now known as Wuhan, for thirty years from 1897 to 1927. He died right after he and his family came back to Japan, when my father was only a few months old. I was born 20 years after the war.

Like many other Japanese of my generation, I learned about the WWII at school, but not in real depth. I knew about the atomic-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and firebombing of cities across Japan, but not about the atrocities committed by the Japanese Army and Navy outside of Japan. When I was 17, I left Japan for the first time to study at this international school in Victoria. Only there, I learned about the cruel acts by the Japanese soldiers, from my Asian classmates. In 1982, I read a book about Unit 731’s biological and chemical warfare research that used live human bodies for experimentation. I still remember how shocked I was then, to learn of the savagery of those acts by the men of my own country. I was almost in disbelief, and it took me a long time to process such knowledge.

Indeed, it is very difficult for many Japanese to learn about this chapter of history, and to think about the possibility of their fathers and grandfathers being involved with such crimes. For me too, even though my family members were not directly involved, I feel deeply shameful and remorseful.

Today, my role is to present some of the efforts by Japanese people who are working for peace and reconciliation in Asia. I have a deep respect for those people in Japan who are working for these causes despite the constant threat from right-wingers. Although it is impossible to talk about all of those people’s efforts in 20 minutes, I will share a few examples that speak of the essence of the Japanese activism for Asian reconciliation.

Textbook debate, and China/Korea/Japan creating a common textbook
First I would like to touch on the textbook issue, which many of you may be familiar with, because of the infamous textbook written by the organization commonly called “Tsukurukai,” which justified Japanese imperial and military aggression in Asia and had little or no mention of atrocities Nanjing Massacre or sex slavery. A contrasting example is Tokyo Shoseki’s textbook. This textbook mentioned “comfort women,” forced labour, myths of “Greater Asia Co-prosperity Sphere,” atrocities like Bataan Death March and Nanjing Massacre.

The adoption rate of the problematic “Tsukurukai” textbook is less than 2 %, and more honest textbooks like Tokyo Shoseki ‘s are still used by the majority of schools in Japan. But the fact that the Tsukurukai textbook is approved by the government itself is a problem, and a more serious problem is that the reference to the “comfort women” issue, which used to be in every approved textbook back in 1997, has almost completely disappeared from the junior high school textbooks.

To countervail such move, an organization called “Children and Textbooks Network Japan 21” was established in 1998, and has over 5,000 members – teachers, scholars, activists and journalists. This Network recently hosted the 8th Conference of the annual “Historical Consciousness and Peace in East Asia” Forum. This Conference started in Nanjing in 2002, with teachers, scholars, and citizens of the three countries – China, Korea, and Japan, in response to the establishment of “Tsukuru-kai.” Instead of just criticizing Tsukuru-kai’s textbook, the trilateral committee decided to create a textbook together. The textbook called “Mirai o Hiraku Rekisi.(History that Opens the Future)” was created by over 50 committee members from the three countries.

Japanese manga exhibit at Nanjing Massacre Museum
One of these committee members was Zhu Cheng Shan, Director of Nanjing Massacre Museum. I will next tell you about the special exhibit he decided to do this summer. This past August 15, he held a special exhibit of 130 pieces of manga art, brought by a group of Japanese graphic artists who experienced war. Yoshimi Ishikawa, the writer who brought this project to China, asked many publishers in China if they are interested in publishing these manga, and he was rejected by all. Japanese war-related publications were just not acceptable. The Ishikawa brought the matter to the President of “People’s Daily,” and after a series of negotiation and censorship, the book got published. Then Ishikawa got in touch with Zhu Chengshan, the Director of Nanjing Museum. As soon as Ishikawa met him, he congratulated Zhu for having created a museum based on the idea that war should never happen again.

Zhu was surprised, because he had only met two types of Japanese before – one just tried to negotiate the number of people killed in Nanjing Massacre, and the other simply apologized. He had never met a Japanese who praised the museum. Zhu liked Ishikawa’s ideas of showing Japanese people’s war experience at the Nanjing Museum, and the exhibit held on August 15th was attended by 20,000 people. There were some criticism, but the overall response from the Chinese people was very positive. For example, Chinese children did not know that Japanese cities were firebombed. It was the power of manga and its graphic presentation of the people’s real experience that moved Chinese people with curiosity.

Peace museums in Japan
Nanjing Massacre Museum is one of the many museums for peace around the world. There are 204 peace museums around the world, and 66 of them are in Japan According to Kazuyo Yamane’s research, 67% percent of the Japanese peace museums surveyed had display contents about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and 30% of them displayed those about the Japanese aggression on other countries. The peace museums in Japan tend to emphasize on the victim side of Japan in the war. This tendency definitely needs to be corrected, but we should still recognize the fact that more than 10 museums in Japan honestly display the past wrongdoing, and act as public peace education centre and bases for activism. Among those museums, the most notable is Oka Masaharu Memorial Nagasaki Peace Museum, which exclusively exhibits Japanese colonization, atrocities and Korean victims of the atomic bombing. This Museum has a partnership with the Nanjing Museum, and raise funds every year to send Japanese students to China.

Another courageous museum is WAM, or Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace in Tokyo, which specializes in Japan’s military sex slavery. This museum was funded by late Yayori Matsui, who was a renowned journalist who was also one of the conveners of the International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan’s Military Sex Slavery held in 2000 in Tokyo. Not just this museum, there are 50 to 60 organizations across Japan that are committed to supporting the victims, but again, there are under constant threat. This summer, one of these organizations held a special exhibit in Mitaka City in the suburbs of Tokyo, and it was sabotaged by right-wing organizations. On the day of the exhibit, they blocked the entrance of the building with more than 100 people, scaring many visitors away. One of my activist friends in Tokyo said that the “comfort women” supporters get the worst sort of death threats and attacks among the other issues. These threats, however, seem to solidify these women’s support network even firmer. The organizer of this event received a nation-wide encouragement, and from the victims’ organization in the Philippines.

Cities and MPs in action
In fact, this Mitaka City, where this exhibit was held, is one of the 11 municipalities in Japan that have submitted position statements to the central government on the wartime military sex slavery. Most of these statements criticize the Japanese Government for its inaction and insincere attitude among the growing international calls for resolution of this issue.

They also call for 1) investigation of the truths of the military sex slavery system, including the public hearing with the victims, 2)an official apology and compensation from the Japanese Government, 3)recovery of the honour and dignity of the victims, and 4)inheritance of the historical knowledge.

On the central government front, three political parties, including the leading Democratic Party, have jointly submitted the bill for legislative resolution for compensation for the total of 8 times since 2001 . Recently, a group of activists, scholars, and artists have come together to start a petition campaign for a resolution by legislation, and their goal is to collect 1.2 million signatures.

This year, we have seen other positive moves by some Members of Parliament. On May 5th, Kumiko Aihara, a Member of the House of Councillors, went to Fushun, in the Northeast China, to apologize to the victims of Pingdingshan Massacre, in which more than 3,000 Chinese civilians were slaughtered by Japanese soldiers on September 16, 1932. Aihara brought a letter of apology representing 24 Members of Parliament, and met one of the survivors of the Massacre.

Another example is that Yukihisa Fujita, a House of Councillors member who disclosed the declassified document that verified the fact that Aso Mining, the mining company owned by the family of former Prime Minister Taro Aso, was abusing 300 Allied Nations’ POWs.

From Devils to Humans – former soldiers working for peace
Fushun, where Pingdingshan Massacre happened, is a place that should not be forgotten for another reason, for the story called “Miracle of Fushun.” After the defeat in the war, over 600,000 Japanese soldiers were sent to labour camps in Siberia. Of those people, about 1,000 were sent to Fushun War Criminal Management Centre.

In Fushun, the way they were treated was completely opposite from that in Siberia. There was no labour involved, and the war criminals were treated with respect, given three Japanese-style meals a day. They were engaged in cultural activities like reading, discussion, and music. By the time the criminals were investigated, they were ready to confess their wrongdoing during the war, and one by one, some in tears, they started to talk about the atrocious acts they committed against the Chinese POWs and civilians. The former soldiers were allowed to go back to Japan in 1956, and the following year, they formed an organization called “Chugoku Kikansha Renrakukai,” or “Association of Returnees from China.” The group was called “Chukiren” for short. Their mandate was to tell people in Japan what they did in China ,and let them know how war and militaristic education could turn ordinary people into devils. In February 1957, the book called “Sanko,” the collection of those former soldier’s accounts was published. “Sanko” is the Japanese war strategy in China – “kill all, loot all, and burn all.” It quickly became a bestseller. Chukiren was dissolved in 2002, due to the aging of the members, but their causes were carried on by younger people, including those in 20’s and 30’s. The new group is called “Continuing Miracle of Fushun.”

The promise of Article 9 and its popular support
Shin-ichiro Kumagai, one of the young leaders of this new group says,

“When I think about these people’s sincere efforts after the war, I believe this is the way the post-war Japan should have been. Unfortunately we Japanese have neither developed enough sensitivity to feel other people’s pain, nor have we regained our conscience to squarely face our past mistakes and learn from them.”

This path that the members of Chukiren chose to follow, one that has never been easy, is a true embodiment of Japan’s post-war Constitution. Japanese people chose to embrace this Constitution that declares they are “resolved that never again shall we be visited with the horrors of war through the action of government,” and in its Article 9, they “forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.” For that purpose, “land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained..” This, according to Chalmers Johnson, is Japan’s declaration to its neighbouring countries that “they have no reason to fear the kind of militarism seen in Japan in 1930’s and 1940’s will be repeated again, because Japan officially, legally, abandoned the use of military might, except in the last-resort self-defense.”

This Article 9’s pledge is alive in the fact that there are over 7,000 pro-Article 9 organizations across Japan and outside of Japan, including one in Vancouver.

Why do we learn history? How are younger generations responsible?
Shuichi Kato, a prominent public intellectual, was among the 9 people who started networking the thousands of grass-roots Article 9 groups in Japan. He taught Japanese culture at universities around the world, including UBC in 1960’s. In later years of his life, he spoke extensively about the young generations’ relationship to the past war. In 2005, Kato said in the NHK radio interview,

"Young people of today's Japan are not responsible for the war crimes of their previous generations, but they have a responsibility for learning the history and examine whether the elements of the society that caused those crimes are still found in today's society or not."

In his talk, Kato pointed out four such elements – 1)information manipulation through mass media, 2)conformism, 3)national isolationism (leading to ethnocentrism), and 4)discrimination of all sorts. Those elements did underlie the Japanese soldiers’ mentality and behaviours in their neighbouring countries. All media was strictly controlled, people’s behaviours were monitored through neighbourhood associations, and Japanese people were taught to believe that they were superior to other Asian peoples. Are these elements present in the current society, not just in Japan, but in other areas, including our own, Canada? Is there racism? Is there ethnocentrism? Is there discrimination? It is easy to detect those in other people, but we also need to recognize them in ourselves, and that is the hardest but most important part. Here in Vancouver, I feel my children are fortunate to grow up with children who have parents from all over the world, including the countries that Japan was at war with, only six, seven decades ago. You learn from each other about the experience of your parents and grandparents, and the older generations can learn from the younger.

In Canada, working together for peace in Asia
For this reason, I believe Vancouver is an ideal place for creating peace and historical reconciliation in Asia, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. This past July, Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko came to visit Canada. When I heard about it, the first question that came to my mind was whether Akihito was aware that visiting a city like Vancouver was equivalent to visiting China, Korea, and Philippines altogether, as the majority of city’s residents were those originally from Asia-Pacific countries and their children. Thekla Lit, who is the organizer of today’s symposium, and I decided to write an open letter together and hold a press conference. The letter would welcome the couple to Canada, let them know what we Asian Canadians are doing to bring healing and justice to the victims of war in Asia, and encourage them to do more of their efforts to pay tribute to the war dead, like they did in China, Saipan, and Okinawa.

ALPHA and Peace Philosophy Centre, two peace organizations were eventually joined by 6 other local organizations - one Japanese, three Filipino, one Korean, and one women’s. Our Press Conference was attended by 16 newspapers and TV stations, and it was reported across Japan through Kyodo News Agency.

We received many positive comments, including one from a Canadian living in Japan, “Excellent piece of work. It does put forward a lot of Canadian values and that's great.” I hope to continue such work that utilizes Canada’s diversity and multicultural environment for peace and reconciliation in Asia.

"The Start of the Pacific War" Day Reported in the NHK News - the 68th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor (or no mention of it)

Last night at 1 AM (December 8), I saw the most weird news report in NHK Morning News (6 PM on the same day by the Japan time). I can't recall the details, but it went like this.

At this temple somewhere in Japan, people gathered to commemorate the anniversary of "the start of the Pacific War." Each rings a bell, then "prays for peace." The purpose of the event is to "recognize the importance of peace." At this street at another place in Japan, women handed out flyers in the shopping arcade. It was the replication of "Akagami," or the "Red Slip" which the government used to send to draft men. Then people on the street were interviewed. An old man says, "War is no good. War should not happen again." A woman says, "Peace is so precious." A young man says, "We should remember the suffering of the previous generations."

There was no mention of the Pearl Harbor attack by the Japanese Navy. There was no explanation of how the "Pacific War" started. There was no mention of the recent controversy over the former Air SDF chief Tamogami's article in which he claimed Pearl Harbor was a set-up. There was no mention of whom Japan fought the war with. There was no mention of the fact that Japan actually lost the war.

For the young people who don't know the history, this news would imply that the war was somewhat like a typhoon or an earthquake that just "happened," and what one can and should do to avoid another war is to pray and wish. The "prayer for peace" is like what many Japanese do in the new year - visit a Buddhist temple or a Shinto shrine, and make a wish that the coming year would be a happy and eventless one.

This kind of ritual I saw in the news can be repeated exactly in the same way whether it is to commemorate Hiroshima/Nagasaki atomic bombing, the air raids on other cities of Japan, Nanjing Massacre (if they do at all), or even Yasukuni Shrine. There is no reflection of what mistake exactly was made by whom and no suggestion of the concrete lesson we the current generation should learn from that specific chapter of history. It is harmless, meaning it is nothing. It avoids debate, and uncomfortable discussion of the past wrong.

I know this kind of tendency is in the Japanese mindset. What happened happened, and there is nothing we could have done about it, so just let it go and live today peacefully and harmoniously, and pray that no bad thing will happen in the future. And let's frown upon people who make a fuss about the past and disturb the "precious peace" we enjoy. That's the kind of reaction that victims of Japanese aggression in Asia have been getting, and the victims of Hiroshima/Nagasaki and Okinawa are getting from their own people.

I acknowledge the Japanese cultural value of prioritizing on harmony and avoiding trouble or disagreement, but we should squarely face the fact that the people of our country made terrible decisions before and caused so much pain and suffering to the people in other countries and our own country, in the fifteen year of Japan's invasive war in China (1931-1945), and four destructive years of the war with the United States, Britain and its Allies (1941-1945). We should seriously think about at whose expense we are enjoying this "precious peace" like it was mentioned in the NHK news.

Right now, activists in Japan are working hard to collect signatures for the petition campaign for the legislative resolution to compensate for the suffering of the victims of Japan's military sex slavery. The on-line petition form is here, but right now the form is only in Japanese. I will announce as soon as the English version is ready.

For peace,

Satoko

Nanking Film Festival in Tokyo 南京・史実を守る映画祭

This if the flyer of the upcoming film festival in Tokyo with the line-up of four films related to the Nanjing Massacre (1937-1938) and a symposium. 日本、特に関東地方の人注目！日本で南京大虐殺事件を扱う映画を観る機会は驚くほど限られています。そういう意味で一日に４本も上映してしまうこのイベントの大胆さ、いや正常さには脱帽します。それも制作は中国、日本、カナダ、アメリカ、オーストラリア、ドイツといった多国籍の視点を網羅したバランスのいいプログラムであると言えます。「引き裂かれた記憶」の英語版が来年のベルリン映画祭にエントリーされた(英語題　Torn Memories of Nanking) と聞きました。国際的な関心が高まる中、日本人だけが知らない、または間違った知識を植えつけられている状況は是正しなければいけません。１２月１３日、ぜひ東京近辺にいらっしゃる方は行ってみてください。遠くからでも出かけていく価値は十分にありの催しと思います。チラシはクリックすれば拡大して見られます。以前の投稿でも紹介しています。オフィシャルウェブサイトはこちらです。

Nuclear Issues – The Basic Standpoint of the Citizens of Hiroshima 核問題における広島市民の立場 広島市立大平和研究所 田中利幸教授

Toshiyuki Tanaka, Professor of Hiroshima Peace Institute submitted this letter to Gerard Cossette, Associate Deputy Minister Foreign Affairs of Canada, and Jonathan Fried, Ambassador of Canada to Japan at the luncheon hosted by the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo on December 4, 2009.

*********************************************************

Nuclear Issues – The Basic Standpoint of the Citizens of Hiroshima

The fundamental issue for the citizens of Hiroshima when discussing nuclear issues is the incomprehensibly vast number of people affected by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima that occurred on August 6 1945. That morning, the atomic bomb instantly killed 70,000 to 80,000 civilians and by the end of 1945, 140,000 residents of Hiroshima had died as a result of the bombing. Many others have subsequently died or are still suffering from various diseases caused by radiation. Hiroshima’s anti-nuclear and peace movements are hence firmly embedded in the understanding that the indiscriminate and mass killing of civilians using nuclear weapons is genocide and that the use of nuclear weapons – under any circumstances – is therefore clearly a crime against humanity. We also regard nuclear deterrence policies to be crimes against peace as explicated by the Nuremberg principle, as “nuclear deterrence” effectively means planning and preparing to commit indiscriminate mass killing, i.e., a crime against humanity, using nuclear weapons. To fail to recognize these fundamental views would mean a complete loss of the momentum of our anti-nuclear and peace movements. I strongly believe that these views are also shared by the citizens of Nagasaki.

As advocates for nuclear abolition, as well as citizens of the first city to feel the effects of a nuclear attack, we are often disappointed by the fact that many politicians, bureaucrats and academics tend to engage in discussions on various nuclear issues, including nuclear deterrence and disarmament, neglecting this basic and indisputable fact – that these in fact signify the massacre of a large number of human beings (as well as many other creatures) using a weapon of mass destruction. They tend to deal with nuclear issues mainly within the frameworks of the “balance of power” between the nuclear states and of international political relations. We therefore would like to strongly urge those involved with these issues never to forget the extreme cruelty of the atomic bombing when entering into discussions on nuclear issues.

“One murder makes a villain, millions a hero. Numbers sanctify.” Henri Verdoux, a murderer, makes this statement shortly before being hanged in the film Monsieur Verdoux, produced by Charlie Chaplin in 1947. It seems that many of us are still influenced by this way of thinking. Indeed, despite countless publications, films and talks on the brutality of atomic bombing over the last 64 years, there is still not a single law anywhere in the world that criminalizes the use of nuclear weapons.

As far as the criminality of the use of nuclear weapons is concerned, worldwide there is so far only one judicial judgment, delivered by the Tokyo District Court in 1963, concerning the so-called Shimoda Case. This judgment plainly stated that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a clear violation of international law and regulations respecting aerial warfare. The court cited a number of international laws including the Convention Respecting the Laws and Customs of War and Land of 1899, the Declaration Prohibiting Aerial Bombardment of 1907, the Hague Draft Rules of Air Warfare of 1922-1923, and the Protocol Prohibiting the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Deleterious or Other Gases and Bacteriological Methods of Warfare. (For details, please see my article ‘The Atomic Bombing, The Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal and the Shimoda Case: Lessons for Anti-Nuclear Legal Movements.’*) The judgment delivered by the International Peoples’ Tribunal on the Dropping of Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in July 2007 also stated that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a war crime as it ‘violated the principles prohibiting the mass murder of civilians, wanton destruction of cities and villages resulting in excessive death not justified by military necessity.’ In other words, it constitutes as a ‘War Crime established in Principle VI (b) of the Nuremberg Principles, and in Article (5) paragraph (b) of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.’ (For details, see the judgment passed by this Tribunal.**)

Despite this, as mentioned above, we have not yet succeeded in establishing an international convention to criminalize and ban the use of nuclear weapons. There are a number of NGOs, such as the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA), who are working hard to establish a comprehensive nuclear weapons convention by providing model conventions. As the world push for the abolition of nuclear weapons is now heightened, we, the citizens of Hiroshima, feel it is time to take effective action and enact an international convention. For this purpose we strongly support movements such as those of the ICAN and IALANA.

However, we believe that, as a step towards the establishment of such a convention, one of the existing international conventions should be fully utilized to quickly criminalize the use of nuclear weapons and other radioactive weapons such as depleted uranium (DU) weapons. In particular, we believe that Chapters II and III of Part IV, Section I “Civilian Population” of the “Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, Signed on 12 December 1977” are extremely useful for this purpose. It is crystal clear that the use of nuclear and DU weapons are a violation of Article 51 (Protection of the civilian population) and Article 55 (Protection of the natural environment) of this Additional Protocol. (Please see the attached copy of the Articles 51 and 55.)

In actual fact, during the process of drafting this Protocol, countries such as Romania, Yugoslavia and North Korea strongly suggested that there should be a provision to name the specific types of weapons of mass destruction to be banned, e.g.: nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. However, due to political pressures from nuclear powers, in particular the U.S., Britain and France, proposals to include such a provision were eventually rejected. The United States declared that ‘nuclear weapons were the subject of separate negotiations and agreements,’ and that ‘the rules established by this protocol were not intended to have any effects on and do not regulate or prohibit the use of nuclear weapons.’ Britain also issued the similar statement and made sure that their policy would not be affected by this Protocol.

It is immediately obvious, on reading the 1977 Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions, that the use of nuclear weapons unquestionably contravenes this Protocol. However, because of the above-mentioned destructive attitude of nuclear powers, we need to include a provision which clarifies the criminality of the use of nuclear, radioactive, chemical and biological weapons as well as all weapons of mass destruction. Thus we would like to propose the addition of a straightforward and simple provision to the Protocol which would make the ban of the use of nuclear weapons a positive international law. It is an extremely simple formula and would therefore not require comprehensive discussion to draft the text of regulation. It only requires the political will of the majority of the nations in the world for it to become possible. Once we succeed in criminalizing the use of nuclear weapons by introducing a simple, new provision, we can start working to draft a separate and more comprehensive nuclear weapons convention, including provisions to ban the production and testing of nuclear weapons.

It is expected that nuclear powers such as the U.S. and Russia will not agree to such a scheme and will refuse to ratify it even if it is endorsed by many other nations. Nevertheless, it should be remembered that　once a ban on the use of nuclear weapons becomes a positive international law, it will also serve to regulate the conduct of non-signatory nations.

Fortunately, the world situation concerning the popular demand for abolishing nuclear weapons has changed considerably – for the better – over the last year or so, although the danger of the proliferation of nuclear weapons is actually increasing. We, the citizens of Hiroshima, feel that the upcoming NPT Review Conference in New York in May next year will be a great opportunity to strengthen the rising popular call for the abolition of nuclear weapons and to make realistic proposals for criminalizing the use of nuclear weapons. To this end, the Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolishment (HANWA) – the largest nonpartisan anti-nuclear organization in Hiroshima, which includes many A-bomb survivors among its members – plans to start campaigning to propose the above mentioned scheme to criminalize the use of nuclear weapons using the 1977 Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions.

If governments of nations like Canada, which are leading the world in Human Security, based upon a “Responsibility to Protect,” could provide assistance in the realization of this scheme, it would be of tremendous moral support to both Hiroshima’s anti-nuclear movement and to the A-bomb survivors, who long for the immediate abolition of nuclear weapons.

December 4, 2009

Yuki Tanaka
Executive Committee Member of HANWA,
Research Professor of the Hiroshima Peace Institute
* ‘The Atomic Bombing, The Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal and the Shimoda Case: Lessons for Anti-Nuclear Legal Movements,’ with comment by Richard Falk posted at Japan Focus (http://japanfocus.org/-Richard-Falk/3245) November 2009.

** http://www.k3.dion.ne.jp/~a-bomb/indexen.htm

Attachments
The Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, Signed on 12 December 1977

Art 51. - Protection of the civilian population

1. The civilian population and individual civilians shall enjoy general protection against dangers arising from military operations. To give effect to this protection, the following rules, which are additional to other applicable rules of international law, shall be observed in all circumstances.

2. The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack. Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited.

3. Civilians shall enjoy the protection afforded by this section, unless and for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities.

4. Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited. Indiscriminate attacks are:
(a) those which are not directed at a specific military objective;
(b) those which employ a method or means of combat which cannot be directed at a specific military objective; or
(c) those which employ a method or means of combat the effects of which cannot be limited as required by this Protocol;

and consequently, in each such case, are of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without distinction.

5. Among others, the following types of attacks are to be considered as indiscriminate:

(a) an attack by bombardment by any methods or means which treats as a single military objective a number of clearly separated and distinct military objectives located in a city, town, village or other area containing a similar concentration of civilians or civilian objects;
and

(b) an attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.

Art 55. Protection of the natural environment

1. Care shall be taken in warfare to protect the natural environment against widespread, long-term and severe damage. This protection includes a prohibition of the use of methods or means of warfare which are intended or may be expected to cause such damage to the natural environment and thereby to prejudice the health or survival of the population.


2. Attacks against the natural environment by way of reprisals are prohibited.

White Rock Meeting December 2009 ホワイトロックの会２００９年１２月のお知らせ

How are you in the frosty winter? The holiday season is approaching... Look at the photo of the more than one hudred "9" (3X3) quilts, symbolizing Article 9, the Peace Constitution. Thanks to Kyoko, we are about to complete this project, and we invite you at Mariko's house at 1:30 PM, Saturday December 12 at Mariko's home in White Rock. Please email whiterock@peacephilosophy.com if you would like to come, and let us know if you would like a ride from Vancouver.

ここのところ　急に寒さが増し、霜の降りる朝が続いています。また　クリスマスライトをあちこちの家並みで見かけ、１２月を感じさせます。

皆さん、この会で　いつか　キルトに挑戦しようと　鍋つかみをつくったことを覚えていらっしゃいますか。
あのあと　"平和をつなぐキルト"を作ろうと　皆さんから９枚はぎの"ナインキルト”をたくさん寄せていただきました。　集まった１００枚以上のナインキルトを　京子さんが一生懸命に縫い合せてくださり　いよいよ　念願の"平和をつなぐキルト”が完成に近づいてきました。　

大きくて素敵なキルトに仕上がりつつあります。写真を参考にしてください。　

今回のホワイトロックの会は　仕上げの作業のキルティングを皆さんと一緒にやっていきたいと思います。

針は糸はこちらで用意しますが、指ぬきが必要な各自で持ってきてください。

たくさんの方々の参加をお待ちしています。

日時：１２月１２日（土曜日）１時半

場所： Mariko's Home in White Rock ( whiterock@peacephilososphy.com にメールください。行き方を案内します。バンクーバーから車でピックアップもできます。）

Living Through the History - Salon with Tatsuo Kage

Our salon on Saturday, the last one of this term, reminded me of the power of learning history through people who have lived through it. I was fortunate to share this salon with about twenty people - students from Ritsumeikan, UBC, SFU, a urologist working at Vancouver General Hospital as a visiting researcher and his early childhood educator wife and their four children, an elementary school teacher who hosts peace meetings at her White Rock home, an art curator/film director and her biologist/engineer husband, former head of the National Association of Japanese Canadians who went through the internment as a child, and former director of a long-established community volunteer organization/a Hiroshima hibakusha. We had such a wealth of diverse experience and knowledge, and curious and youthful energy.

Kage-san's talk was wide-ranging and still coherent. Each picture had a powerful story to tell, and the hour and a half talk felt like ten minutes. Year 1935 felt real to the younger ones, with the baby photo of Kage-san with his well-built and confident military-officer father and his beautiful mother clad in kimono, something an average Japanese woman now wears only a few times for the entire life. The "military boy" as Kage-san described his childhood, holds the toy sword and gun proudly. The world, however changed upside-down in 1945. He showed the photo of his elementary school textbook, in which all war-sort of things had to be blackened with ink, the practice of "kuronuri textbook" in the post-war Japan. Even the part of a snow-ball fight had to be erased.

Kage-san's curiosity never got erased, though. He studied European History at the university, and studied in Germany. He learned about Weimer's Republic and the rise of Nazi - something we would like to hear more about in another occasion. He taught at Meijigakuin University before he immigrated to Canada in 1975. Kage-san made a significant contribution to the Japanese Canadians' Redress Movement by searching for and assisting those 4,000 Japanese-Canadians who were exiled to Japan after the internment. His book "Nikkei Canada jin no Tsuiho" ("The Exile of Japanese Canadians," Akashi Shoten, 1998), with in-depth interviews with the Japanese-Canadians in Japan whom Kage-san found, has been translated into English but he has not found a publisher yet. There has never been any other work of this kind before, so I hope an English version will be published soon. (Photo is from the Sendai meeting, one of the nine meetings held in August 1989 across Japan, to provide information about the Redress, by the Canadian Government and the National Association of Japanese Canadians. Kage-san acted as a coordinator and translator for the mission.)

Kage-san's subsequent work for human rights covers a wide spectrum of issues and different minotiry groups, from the First Nations People, the victims of Japan's military sex slavery, the second-generation trauma of Jewish and Japanese, to this Japanese diplomat in Lithuania Chiune Sugihara, who disobeyed the government order and issued thousands of visas to the Jews who were seeking to escape Poland. In the picture is Sugihara's wife and family members of one of the Jew survivors whom Sugihara saved.

Kage-san has also been involved with many activities to raise awareness about the Japanese atrocities in Asia during the war, including the petition campaign to support the Ienaga Textbook Lawsuits in which historian Saburo Ienaga sued the Japanese Government for censoring the textbooks he authored. The first lawsuit was filed in 1965 followed by two more in 1967, and 1984. The issues of debate were the description in Ienaga's textbooks about the Rape of Nanking, military sex slavery, forced suicides in the Battle of Okinawa, and the Korean resistance against Japan during the Sino-Japan War, among others. Although "kyokasho kentei," the government's intervention with the textbooks which many regard as censorship, was not deemed unconstitutional, the final judgment by the Supreme Court in 1997 ruled many of the government's revision recommendations illegal. The 32-year long trial was recorded in the Guiness Book as the longest civil trial ever. (In the Photo is Saburo Ienaga speaking at the press conference after the Supreme Court Ruling)

I feel privileged finally to have gotten to know more of Kage-san's human rights work, after working with him for five years for Vancouver Save Article 9. I admire Kage-san's decades of tireless devotion for peace and historical reconciliation, which transcends national borders and ethnic boundaries and brings people with different backgrounds together for common goals. I am sure the young members of our salon saw as much of a role model as I saw in Kage-san.

Please see feedback from the participants below, or by clicking "comments" if they are not showing. I will keep adding more comments as they come in. Of course readers are all welcome to leave a comment as well.

In peace and love,

Satoko

P.S.

This salon was the last official event of 2009 by Peace Philosophy Centre. There are two more events in December that the Centre is associated with. The International Human Rights Day event takes place this Saturday, December 5, at Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House, and the last White Rock meeting of this year will take place on Saturday, December 12. We will post the 2010 schedule some time in January.