New York, NY – Several hundred people gathered in midtown Manhattan at The People’s Forum to launch Nodutdol’s U.S. Out of Korea campaign. Hundreds more gathered at events in Oakland and Los Angeles for similar launch events.

The event began with Nodutdol organizers presenting the background of the organization. Nodutdol (노듯돌, meaning stepping-stone) has roots in the 1990s when members of the Korean movement would travel to Korea to learn from the people in the South and North of the peninsula about their organizing against U.S. domination. They became fully established in 1999 in Queens, New York and in the early 2000s pivoted their focus to anti-war efforts in the Middle East. They continued their delegation trips to Korea and deepened their anti-imperialist resolve.

The organizers also gave a brief but in-depth review of the history of the Korean war. They began from when the Japan imperial flag was lowered in 1945 to how the U.S. military swept in immediately to quell any rising socialist sentiments. The Korean people were forced to trade from one brutal, imperialist force to another. The U.S. helped lead a murderous campaign against the Korean people to eliminate any opposition. At the time, it was estimated that 70% of the people of Korea were interested in socialism and the U.S. effectively eliminated close to 3 million of them.

With the U.S. still present in the peninsula, this makes it the longest running war in U.S. history.

In the last few years, the U.S. military activity has sharply increased in recent years. In 2023, U.S. forces conducted 200 days of military exercises. In mid-August, the U.S. and the Republic of Korea (ROK) will hold nuclear war exercises in Korea in joint military drills. These drills will occur during the Democratic National Convention in the U.S.

The escalation on behalf of the U.S. and the ROK has increased tensions with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). This led to the DPRK’s announcement earlier this year that they can’t see a future where peaceful reunification is possible with the ROK. As long as the ROK is not just under U.S. influence, but actively seeks to ally themselves with them, there can’t be a peaceful process.

Additionally, under President Biden's administration, the U.S., ROK and Japan have joined in an alliance called JAROKUS and are on the way to build the new “Asian NATO.”

Ju-Hyun Park, the Nodutdol lead organizer for the U.S. Out of Korea campaign, stated “We are just weeks away from the U.S. conduction nuclear war exercises in Korea. These drills do not keep Koreans safe—in fact, they are pushing the Korean Peninsula towards open warfare. For more than 70 years the U.S. government has pursued a failed strategy of aggression against North Korea. Now, the U.S. is escalating its aggression to try to turn Korea into a battlefield for the New Cold War.”

Once the attendees understood the history of the region, Nodutdol organizers presented the campaign demands to an enthusiastic crowd. The demands, reprinted here are:

• US OUT OF KOREA: the full and permanent withdrawal of US troops and weapons systems from Korea. We demand all Korean land, water, and airspace appropriated for the US military be returned to the Korean people.
• END THE U.S.-SOUTH KOREA ALLIANCE: an end to ALL US-South Korea alliances, including the JAKUS trilateral security cooperation. We demand an end to ALL US-South Korea joint command structures—the Combined Forces Command, and the UN Command. 
• END ALL AGGRESSION AGAINST NORTH KOREA: We demand an end to ALL US military exercises in Korea. We demand ALL sanctions against North Korea be lifted.
• END THE WAR ECONOMY: We demand the US government divert spending from war, prisons, and policing. We demand housing, education, healthcare, and climate justice for working people.

The crowd clapped as each demand was listed.

Park continued, “As Koreans in the diaspora, we refuse to stand by as the U.S. foments war in our homeland. We believe standing up to U.S. imperialism in Korea is not just in our interests as Korean people, but in the interests of the majority of people in the U.S. as well. It’s time to work together to stop U.S. warmongering in Korea and around the world.”

Over 30 organizations have endorsed the campaign, including: Black Alliance for Peace, Codepink, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and Bayan USA.

The next event will be a rally on August 18 to protest the U.S. and ROK war games.

 #NewYorkNY #NYC #DPRK #USOutOfKorea #BlackAllianceforPeace #BAP #Codepink #FRSO #BayanUSA #ROK #RepublicOfKorea #Korea #Nudutdol #JAROKUS #Japan #ThePeoplesForum

Milwaukee, WI – On the evening of August 9, over 50 anti-war activists, peace advocates and community members gathered at the Urban Ecology Center in Washington Park on Milwaukee’s north side to remember the victims of the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9) in 1945. Additionally, victims of recent and prior mass shootings across the U.S. were honored.

The program began with an opportunity for attendees to create their own Japanese lanterns, including drawing or writing messages or images on the wrappings. Many custom designs feature messages such as “No more war!” and “Denuclearization 4 our future!” The lanterns were released into the park’s lagoon at the conclusion of the remembrance.

While the lanterns were being made, people listened to a reading of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, a story about the death of a young Japanese girl who died in 1955 at the age of 12 due to a specific type of leukemia that became commonly known as ‘atomic bomb disease.’ The story is meant to highlight the innocent victims who are the unavoidable casualties of nuclear weapons.

Several speakers took the stage next, all calling in some form for a shift away from war toward peace. The messages ranged in content from discussing the need for love in times of great despair to reports of indigenous resistance to continued violations of their sovereignty regarding the mining of uranium on their lands.

“Colonizers have been inflicting intergenerational trauma, and collective healing is imperative for ourselves and our future generations,” said Michele Gilbert, an educator in Milwaukee Public Schools and a member of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association.

The thread through most points the speakers made was clear: nuclear weapons and the various processes that go into producing them are harmful to all manner of people and the planet. The demand was put forward for what amounted to a ‘people’s budget’ in place of the endless funding given to war.

“Continually, the U.S. funds war more than peace,” said Kiva Carman-Frank, a participant in the gathering. “Hiroshima and Nagasaki illustrate this; conflicts around the world illustrate this; occupation in the Middle East illustrates this; domestic conflicts illustrate this.”

“We need to prioritize funding active peace over war,” she concluded.

All those in attendance made a commitment to themselves and one another to continue the fight for a world without nuclear weapons.

#MilwaukeeWI #International #AntiwarMovement #OppressedNationalities #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #AsianNationalities #Japan #Nagasaki #Hiroshima #remembrance

The WFTU, representing more 97 million workers in 130 countries expresses its solidarity and support the dockworkers in Japan who are taking dynamic measures against the unacceptable and demand of the Japan Harbor Transportation Association for abolishing the current system for determining dockworkers’ minimum wage.

The employers are insisting to present their fake argument that the determined minimum wages of the workers are against the anti-monopoly rules despite the fact that even the labor relations authority rejected this fake argument, clearly declaring that the minimum wage system for dockworkers does not infringe on anti-monopoly rules.

Those who earn countless profits from the daily heavy and painful work of the dockworkers are trying to intensify the exploitation against them. The thirst for profits is not hiding behind the hypocritical supposed interest of the employers to protect the anti-monopoly rule. The workers know that employers are seeking more profits by exploiting more and more those who create everything but have almost nothing.

The World Federation of Trade Unions condemns the anti-labour intentions of the Japan Harbor Transportation Association to create an even more flexible working conditions and cheaper workforce. The class-oriented trade union movement expresses unlimited support to the dockworkers of Japan who went on strike a few days ago and call them to continue relentlessly their struggles.

The Secretariat

#Japan #PeoplesStruggles #WFTU #JapanDockworkers

San José, CA – On Dec. 26, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe paid a visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan’s capital, Tokyo. This shrine honors Japanese war deaths and includes 14 of the most prominent Japanese convicted of war crimes during World War II, as well as more than a thousand other Japanese war criminals. The shrine also includes a museum, the Yushukan, which portrays Japan’s war of conquest during World War II as aiming to kick out European colonists and covers over some of the worst war crimes, such as the Rape of Nanjing.

The act was strongly protested by China and South Korea, who both suffered from Japan’s wars and occupation. The 1937 Rape of Nanjing, where Japanese troops raped and killed more than 250,000 Chinese is a fact that Abe has tried to cast doubt on by supporting rewriting Japanese school books to say that this was “open to debate.” The Japanese army also enslaved Korean and Chinese women to be prostitutes for the Japanese military (the so-called ‘comfort women’) during World War II, a fact also denied by Abe.

While Abe had visited the Yasukuni Shrine before, this was his first visit as prime minister (Abe had been prime minister from 2006-2007, but did not visit the shrine during that time). Abe is a longtime nationalist politician who has tried to downplay Japan’s imperial past and atrocities committed by the Japanese occupation forces in China and other countries. By trying to cover up and deny Japan’s past of war and occupation, Abe is laying the basis for Japan to try to restore its former imperial glory at the expense of its neighbors, in particular China and Korea.

Abe supports changing Japan’s constitution to remove its article on peace and has been a long-time supporter of expanding Japan’s military. One of his first acts as prime minister was to increase funding for the military. Abe has also stepped up Japanese military patrols around the Chinese Diaoyu Islands, which Japan has occupied since it defeated China in the 1895 Sino-Japanese War.

Abe has found a partner in the U.S. government, whose military ‘pivot towards Asia’ is also putting it on a collision course with China. The day after visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, Abe announced that U.S. plans for a new military base in Okinawa would move forward. The construction of a new U.S. military base has been strongly opposed by the Okinawan people, whose nation has been the site for most of the U.S. military bases in Japan, and whose people have be subject to rape, murder and other criminal acts by U.S. military personnel.

#SanJoséCA #China #Japan #ShinzoAbe #YasukuniShrine #Asia

Minneapolis, MN – Geng Yansheng, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, made an important statement in Beijing, Dec. 3 on China's establishment of the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).

The release of the statement coincided with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's visit to China and come on the heels of provocative unannounced flights of U.S. war planes in the identification zone.

Geng stated that the establishment of the zone is “a necessary measure for China to protect its state sovereignty and territorial and airspace security. It is conducive to maintaining flying safety in international airspace, and is in line with international laws and conventions.”

Geng noted the ADIZ was not a ‘no fly zone’ and that it did not undermine the freedom of over-flight. He also stated, “Some people doubt China's monitoring capabilities in the East China Sea ADIZ. The Chinese military's determination and volition to safeguard the security of national territory and territorial airspace are unwavering and the military is fully capable of exercising effective control over the East China Sea ADIZ. Generally, supervision and control are exercised through reported flight plans and radar response and identification, among other means. Military planes can also take flight if necessary to identify entering targets. Measures to be taken are based on factors such as an entering aircraft's attributes – military or civilian, the extent of threat, or distance. Fighter planes are unnecessary when an entering aircraft is found to pose no threat to us, but necessary surveillance is needed; when the entering threat is ascertained to reach a certain extent, military aircraft will be mobilized at an appropriate time to dispose of the situation.”

Speaking on the role of Japan, which has its own ADIZ, Geng stated, “Since September 2012, Japan has been making trouble over territorial disputes, staging a farce by announcing that it would ‘purchase’ the Diaoyu Islands, frequently sending vessels and planes to disturb Chinese ships and planes in normal exercises or training, openly making provocative remarks such as shooting down Chinese drones, playing up the so-called China threat, escalating regional tension, creating excuses for revising its current constitution and expanding its military, trying to deny the result of the World War II, and refusing to implement the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation. Japan's actions have seriously harmed China's legitimate rights and security interests and undermined the peace and stability in east Asia. China has to take necessary reactions.”

One aspect of the U.S. ‘pivot towards Asia’ is strengthening relations with Japan and other countries in the region to counter People’s China. The overall aim of the ‘pivot’ is to dominate the Pacific region.

#MinneapolisMN #China #Japan #DiaoyuIslands #EastChinaSeaAirDefenseIdentificationZone #Asia

Air Defense Identification Zones are a common international practice. More than 20 countries have them. Japan established its Air Defense Identification Zones in 1969.

The creation of China’s Air Defense Identification Zone comes at a time of growing tension between China and Japan over the Diaoyu Islands, which lie within the new zone. Historically, the islands are a part of China. Japan has physical control over the islands.

If reports on the U.S. military aircraft ignoring zone regulations are accurate, this move would indicate that the U.S. is upping its support for the Japanese occupation of China’s Diaoyu Islands and would mark an escalation of the U.S. push against China.

In recent years, an important element of U.S. foreign policy has been a ‘pivot’ towards Asia. Key elements of this policy are to surround China with U.S. military bases and to reach military agreements with China’s neighbors. The overall goal is to maintain U.S. domination over the Pacific region.

In recent weeks, the U.S. has taken advantage of the massive typhoon that hit the Philippines as a means to create the climate for a greater presence in that country.

#MinneapolisMN #China #Japan #USImperialism #DiaoyuIslands #EastChinaSeaAirDefenseIdentificationZone #Asia

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun states that China created the Identification Zone with “the aim of safeguarding state sovereignty, territorial land and air security and maintaining flight order. This is a necessary measure taken by China in exercising its self-defense right.”

Inside the newly created Identification Zone are the Japan-occupied Diaoyu Islands. Historically a part of China, Japan maintains physical control over the Diaoyu Islands and the islands have become a flashpoint in Chinese-Japanese relations in recent years.

Japan’s current Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe – a right winger who defends Japan’s brutal imperial past – is up in arms about the decision to establish the Identification Zone.

A Nov. 24 report in The Guardian states, “Japan has denounced the zone set up by China on Saturday as ‘totally unacceptable’ and indicated that aircraft from its self-defence force would ignore Beijing's attempt to oblige aeroplanes to obtain its permission before entering.”

On Nov. 23 U.S Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel stated, “This announcement by the People's Republic of China will not in any way change how the U.S. conducts military operations in the region.”

Referring to the Diaoyu Islands as the ‘Senkaku Islands’, which is the name used by the Japanese authorities, Hegel affirmed the U.S. was ready to join a military conflict with China, stating, “We remain steadfast in our commitments to our allies and partners. The U.S. reaffirms its longstanding policy that Article V of the U.S.-Japan Mutual Defense Treaty applies to the Senkaku Islands.”

#MinneapolisMN #China #selfdetermination #Japan #USImperialism #DiaoyuIslands #EastChinaSeaAirDefenseIdentificationZone #Asia

Describing General Giap as a “warrior of the twentieth century, architect of the future,” the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) stated, “Japan, France and the United States, three of the strongest powers in human history, fell successively, humiliated before his military and political genius.”

A statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said “Giap was the first military commander to defeat a Western colonial power in Asia, and his legacy is renowned not only by the Vietnamese people but by all peoples around the world and all movements for liberation from colonialism and imperialism.”

The Communist Party of the Philippines, summed up some of the lessons of Giap’s efforts, stating, “Comrade Giap led the Vietnamese People’s Army in the historic Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the center of French military power in Indochina. Here, the Vietnamese people demonstrated how they could defeat a more modern army through the use of guerrilla tactics. They marched in their thousands to build hidden trails, dug hundreds of kilometers of trenches, dismantled their cannons and artillery and manually pulled them up to high mountain ridges in order to quietly encircle the overly confident French troops. They launched a blitzkrieg attack against the French military base and after 55 days of fighting, forced the complete surrender of the French colonialists on May 7, 1954.”

The Communist Party of the Philippines also stated, “The lessons of the Vietnamese people’s war of resistance continue to illumine people’s wars around the world, including that being waged by the Filipino people through the New People’s Army. The military writings of Comrade Giap, especially in waging guerrilla warfare, have been translated into Pilipino and other local languages, enabling Filipino revolutionaries to study the lessons of the people’s war in Vietnam.”

#MinneapolisMN #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #Remembrances #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippines #RevolutionaryArmedForcesOfColombia #Vietnam #Japan #USImperialism #France #GeneralVoNguyenGiap

San José, CA – In the past few days, the Japanese government has accused China provoking Japanese navy ships near the Chinese Diaoyu Islands, which lie about 120 miles northeast of Taiwan. The new nationalist Japanese government is continuing to increase military tensions with China by sending naval forces and military aircraft to the islands, which are occupied by Japan, which calls them the Senkaku Islands. In addition, the U.S. still recognizes the Japanese occupation and says that it will back Japan militarily under the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty.

The Diaoyu Islands were taken from China by Japan following Japan’s victory over the Ching (Manchu) dynasty government of China in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. After the war the Chinese government was also forced to allow Japan to occupy Taiwan, and recognize the independence of Korea, which was later also occupied by Japan. After the defeat of Japan in World War II, the U.S. transferred control of the Diaoyu Islands to Japan instead of returning them to China. The Diaoyu Islands are among the last of the territories seized by Japan during its imperial expansion which began in 1879 with the annexation of Okinawa and ended with Japan’s defeat at the end of World War II in 1945.

The new Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzoo Abe, is a longtime nationalist politician who has tried to downplay Japan’s imperial past and atrocities committed by the Japanese occupation forces in China and other countries. In the 1990s Abe supported attempts to rewrite Japanese history textbooks to claim that the rape and massacre of Nanjing by Japanese troops in 1937, which killed more than 250,000 Chinese, was “open to debate.” Japanese nationalists also tried to revive the false view that the Japanese occupation of East and Southeast Asia was aimed at kicking out European colonists and helped later independence movements.

Abe has also denied the Japanese government’s role in enslaving Korean and Chinese women to be prostitutes for the Japanese military (the so-called ‘comfort women’.) He has visited the Yasukuni shrine, where many of Japan’s Class A War Criminals (those responsible for leading Japan’s brutal occupation during World War II) are interred and has suggested that they were not really war criminals. By trying to cover up and deny Japan’s past of war and occupation, Abe is laying the basis for Japan to try to restore its former imperial glory at the expense of its neighbors, in particular China and Korea. Abe supports changing Japan’s constitution to remove its article on peace, and has been a long-time supporter of expanding Japan’s military. One of his first acts as Prime Minister was to increase funding for the military.

Anti-war activists, Japanese American progressives, and supporters of civil liberties need to recognize that the Diaoyu Islands are Chinese territory taken by Japan in 1895 and see Japan’s military build-up as a threat to peace in the Asia. We also need to oppose the U.S. government’s military backing of Japan, which could further move the U.S. down the road to military conflict with China.

#SanJoséCA #China #Japan #PeoplesRepublicOfChina #Asia

The nuclear disaster taking place in Japan comes on top of the natural disaster of the 9.0 earthquake and 12 meter (38 foot) tsunami that traveled as much as 6 miles inland in places, washing away roads, buildings and vehicles. An estimated 10,000 people have lost their lives. The tsunami caused a complete power failure at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant, which has 6 nuclear reactors.

The earthquake and tsunami were natural disasters. It could take several years to clean up the debris, rebuild housing and clean salt from the rice paddies and soybean fields in the area impacted by this disaster.

The nuclear disaster currently unfolding is a man-made disaster that could have been prevented. Talking heads for the nuclear industry appear on TV and imply that the nuclear meltdown is akin to aliens landing on planet earth, something that could not have been planned for. This is simply not the case. In 1923 Japan experienced an 8.3 earthquake that generated a 30 to 40 foot tsunami, yet the Fukushima plant was not built to withstand the effects of a similar earthquake and tsunami.

Listening carefully to the nuclear industry’s experts the reason is clear. As happens daily under capitalism, profits are put before people. Making nuclear plants designed to withstand a worst case scenario and protecting the surrounding population is deemed too costly by the profit driven system.

This profit driven decision making is rubber stamped by regulators that are closely tied with the industry they are supposed to regulate. Steff Yorek, a spokesperson for Freedom Road Socialist Organization said, “Allowing the nuclear industry to regulate itself is like letting the kids set the rules for the candy store. The same process that led to the BP oil spill a year ago is the cause of the disaster at Fukushima. We cannot allow the health of people and the safety of the environment to be discarded in favor of maximum profit for a handful of wealthy people.”

She added, “The natural disaster by itself would have been difficult enough to cope with, but in five years or so life could have returned to normal. Even in the best case scenario, the working people of Japan will now face radioactive seafood and soil and contaminated ground water for the next 300 years. Capitalism has doomed another Japanese generation to cancer and birth defects. The only question now is in how large of an area will be impacted and how high the dosage of radiation will go.”

#Japan #NuclearCrisis #EnvironmentalJustice #nuclearEnergy #FukushimaDaiichiNuclearPlant

The plant was designed by the U.S. based corporation, General Electric, which also supplied equipment for the complex. The plant design has faced criticism from scientists over the potential for cooling system leaks. General Electric has also played a major role in the production of nuclear weapons.

Over the last two years, there has been a wide scale effort to revive the nuclear power industry in the United States. No new nuclear power plants have been commissioned here since the disaster at Pennsylvanian’s Three Mile Island Nuclear power plant in 1979. Those disasters strengthened an already existing mass movement against nuclear power, effectively putting the industry on the ropes.

The events in Japan call into questions plans by U.S. energy corporations to build new nuclear power plants.

Commenting on the situation, Steff Yorek, a spokesperson for Freedom Road Socialist Organization stated, “We are in solidarity with the people of Japan and our heart goes out to the huge numbers of working people whose lives, already endangered by natural disaster, have been put at additional risk by this man-made disaster.”

She continued, “The capitalists who run the developed countries cannot be trusted with something as dangerous as nuclear power. They will always put profits over safety. Nuclear power is an inherently unsafe way to produce electricity. We need to move to safe, and environmentally sound ways of addressing energy needs.”

#Japan #NuclearCrisis #EnvironmentalJustice #nuclearEnergy #GeneralElectric #ThreeMileIsland #FukushimaDaiichiNuclearPlant

Para mayor información visite el sitio de internet del Comité Tule Lake: www.tulelake.org

#TuleLakeCA #AsianNationalities #Japan #ComitéTuleLake

Berkeley, CA – In October of 1952, more than 400 delegates and observers from 37 countries gathered in Beijing, China for the Peace Conference of the Asian and Pacific Regions. Two of the delegates from the United States were Mary Bonzo and Lewis Suzuki. In the 50 years since the conference, both Mary and Lewis have remained active fighters for peace and supporters of national liberation movements. In August, both spoke at a program to commemorate the anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The program was sponsored by Nosei, a group of younger Japanese American activists in San Francisco and the East Bay. I spoke with Mary and Lewis after the program.

Naomi: The Peace Conference was held just three years after the founding of the People's Republic of China. What were your impressions of socialist China?

Mary: I found a co-American delegate who could read and write Chinese. Because of his skills, we wandered around in Peking. He was able to ask people what was going on as they gathered around a policeman. The people were arguing with the policeman about some of his behavior. They kept calling him 'comrade.' This amazed me, since I had been picked up several times and threatened by police in the U.S. No argument allowed.

Madam Sun Yet Sun [Soong Ching Ling, who chaired the Peace Conference] took the lead in organizing the women. Women were meeting everywhere. They were learning to read along with their children. They were earning the same as the men in the family. They accused their tormentors of the crimes they had committed against them. They had joined the Red Army and fought as well as males. “We have stood up,” they said proudly to us.

Naomi: How did the Peace Conference address the struggle for peace in Korea in the midst of the Korean War?

Mary: Korean delegates were angered by the U.S. use of bacterial and chemical-laden bombs against the people of Korea and northeast China. In North Korea, the U.S. dropped bombs that spread cholera, typhoid, bubonic plague and other infectious diseases from Jan. 28 to March 11 in 1952. The bombs covered an area of six provinces and twenty cities.

The Association of Democratic Lawyers, the International Scientific Commission and leading friends of peace documented accurate evidence as to the use of germ warfare by the U.S. forces. Because the news was spread abroad, germ bombing stopped. The next U.S. tactic was saturation bombing of North Korean cities. An exhibit of the bombs that carried the germs was organized in Peking.

We (the United States) have weapons of mass destruction and have used them. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are well known. Bacteriological weapons used in Korea are less well known. There is also the forgotten use of the Bikini Atoll as U.S. nuclear test sites, and the list can go on.

Naomi: After World War II, many countries of the Third World rebelled against their colonial masters. What did you learn about the relationship between national liberation struggles and the movement for peace?

Mary: There is no peace without national liberation and national sovereignty. All nations must have the right to develop their own resources. We learned that one can love one's country and defend it as needed; and also criticize and protest its policy when it infringes on another nation. A country's national interests cannot be allowed to infringe on another nation.

True peace means a full livelihood, health care, and education for all citizens. This is unavailable to most people in Africa, Asia, and much of Latin America. The people do not own their own resources.

Naomi: Would you like to say anything about the struggle for peace today?

Lewis: First of all, we (the United States) cannot invade other countries like Iraq just because we don't like their government. We need to respect the sovereignty of other nations. Secondly, we shouldn't be labeling national liberation movements such as the New People's Army of the Philippines as “terrorists” and then send thousands of U.S. troops there under the guise of “fighting terrorism.” I am very hopeful for the peace movement in this country. Many of the new immigrant communities and in the environmental movement see the need for peace.

#BerkeleyCA #Asia #Interviews #China #Japan #PeaceConferenceOfTheAsianAndPacificRegions #Nosei #PeoplesRepublicOfChina #germWarfare

While the U.S. government claims that the atomic bombs were necessary to end the war, in fact Japan was already seeking to surrender. A month before the bombs were dropped, General MacArthur, supreme commander of the Allied forces in the Pacific, heard that Japan was seeking to negotiate a surrender. He then told his staff to hold work on the invasion of Japan to focus on the occupation.

The reality is that the U.S. government decided to drop the atomic bombs as an opening shot of the Cold War. The bombs were to send a message to the Soviet Union that the United States had a new weapon of terror in its effort to replace the old colonial powers of Europe and Japan with an American empire. This sparked an arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, leading to the more powerful hydrogen bombs, intercontinental bombers and missiles and submarine launched missiles.

Worldwide protests and calls for nuclear disarmament led to the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NNPT). Nuclear powers, including the United States, the Soviet Union, France, Britain and China pledged to reduce their nuclear stockpiles, while over 100 other countries promised not to develop nuclear weapons.

While the mainstream media in the United States raises a big fuss about the possible development of nuclear weapons in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea [ North Korea] and Iran, it ignores the development of atomic bombs by U.S. allies Israel and Pakistan. Even less is said about the huge U.S. stockpile of over 6000 atomic weapons, almost as much as the rest of the world combined.

Given the military might of the United States, and its willingness to exercise that strength, it is not surprising that small countries, like Democratic Korea, find the development of nuclear weapons crucial to their national defense.

The Bush administration is working hard to undermine the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty even though the U.S. signed and ratified the treaty in 1970. Rather than reducing the number of atomic weapons that the United States has, Bush wants to develop new atomic weapons that are designed to be used against non-nuclear enemies. While the U.S. is supposed to restrict the export of nuclear technology, Bush just signed an agreement with India, a new U.S. ally in the ‘war on terror,’ to provide India with U.S. nuclear technology despite India’s development of atomic weapons. No wonder the recent NNPT conference deadlocked after non-nuclear countries faced off with the United States over its government’s refusal to live up to its commitment to disarm.

The 1960s and 1980s saw the development of grassroots movements for nuclear disarmament. Such a movement, that would target the United States, is badly needed today. We need to demand that the U.S. government promise to never be the first to use nuclear weapons, to cut off military and nuclear aid to new nations who develop atomic weapons such as Israel, Pakistan and India, to withdraw all U.S. atomic weapons from other countries and to cut its own nuclear stockpile. These acts would start a path for the other nuclear powers to begin their own disarmament, with the goal of the total abolition of all nuclear weapons.

#UnitedStates #Commentary #Editorials #Japan #Nagasaki #Hiroshima #NuclearDisarmament

San Francisco, CA – Nearly one hundred protesters marched on the Philippine and Japanese embassies in San Francisco on Dec. 7. The “Tour of Shame” was organized by the Asian and Pacific Islander Coalition Against War to protest daily bombings in Afghanistan and the loss of civil liberties throughout the world.

In a prepared statement, the group declared, “We reject calls for revenge and instead call for peace. We condemn the militarization of our home countries in support of the United States' war on terrorism and rollbacks in civil liberties and American ideals of freedom here in the U.S.”

In November, the Japanese government deployed six battle-ready naval ships to South Asia at the urging of the U.S. government – its first full-scale military operation outside of Japan since World War II. “Americans don't realize that Japan has the second largest military budget in the world,” said Miho Kim of the U.S.-Japan No War Network.

“We are demanding that the troops return to Japan, that the Peace Constitution be respected, and that Japan withdraw from the war against terrorism. Japan, as the sole nation to be attacked with the atomic bomb, can play an important role in promoting peace in the international community,” she added.

In recent months, the U.S. stepped up its intervention in the Philippines, where a powerful movement for national liberation is underway. U.S. troops will participate in combat missions.

Since Sept. 11, thousands of immigrants in the U.S. have been detained and many more have lost their jobs or had their loyalty questioned. In the Bay Area, many Pilipino security personnel have lost their jobs due to lack of citizenship. “Why are immigrants being made to pay for the United States' unjust social, economic and military policies around the world?” asked Rhonda Ramiro, a speaker from the Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines.

She continued, “The current war is about U.S. imperialism – for control of the world's resources and power over the world's people. And we know from history that the U.S. will do this through unequal economic policies ... and even world war, to consolidate its power and control.”

The Tour of Shame ended at the United Nations plaza in downtown San Francisco. “While we were marching here, many people noticed us.” said Monica Lai of Asian Pacific Islanders for Community Empowerment.

Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines member Kawal Ulanday summed it up, “we call for international solidarity as we bring to the forefront the truth about sellout governments loyal to U.S. imperialism.” Tour organizers pledged to continue shaming other consulate offices in coming months.

#SanFranciscoCA #SanFrancisco #AntiwarMovement #News #Afghanistan #Philippines #Japan #911 #AsianAndPacificIslanderCoalitionAgainstWar #discriminationAgainstSouthAsians #CommitteeForHumanRightsInThePhilippines