Four years after the outbreak of war, the Bush administration has created a morass of violence in Iraq, by repeatedly reinforcing American troops and conducting "mopping-up operations" there, each time causing more and more civilian casualties. Similarly, Afghanistan is also in a permanent state of war, with a large population of refugees for whom life is extremely difficult. The "war against international terrorism" has, in fact, triggered terrorist attacks, rather than suppress them, as is evidenced in England, where people live in constant fear, not unlike people in the U.S. In both nations, the demand by ordinary people for the withdrawal of military forces is growing steadily.

The Japanese government continues to blindly follow U.S. policies and support the illegal military occupation of Iraq. It keeps troops from the Air Self Defense Force there to assist the U.S. occupation forces by transporting U.S. soldiers and weapons around the country. Under the guise of supporting the American "war against terrorism," Japanese Maritime SDF ships have been supplying fuel to U.S. war ships in the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea for the last six years, spending huge sums of taxpayers' money. Yet the SDF not only refuses to release any information on these operations, but is secretly, and illegally, gathering information on the activities of peace groups and activists who have been working in the campaign against the Iraq War. The Japanese government is pursuing a shift towards the militarization of the state, clearly violating the constitution, by upgrading the Defense Agency to a Ministry of Defense, by making the overseas dispatch of troops a major operation, by engaging in missile defense and aerial bombing exercises and by exploring the possibility of using the right to collective defense.

Economic globalization, promoted by so-called advanced nations, is creating a large gap between rich and poor, both globally and domestically. As a result, it causes conflict in many regions of the world and induces terrorist attacks and crime in many nations. The main purpose for the recent re-organization and re-building of the U.S. Forces is to suppress such regional conflicts swiftly and effectively, regarding them as a threat to Pax Americana. The backbone of such American military power is nuclear weapons and their capability to conduct nuclear war. It is absolutely impossible to establish world peace under such an oppressive system, with weapons of mass destruction, which could lead to the annihilation of mankind. Unfortunately, Japan seems to be joining this repressive club. In Okinawa, Iwakuni and Kanagawa, the Japanese government employs a carrot and stick policy to local governments, using taxpayers' money to crush movements opposing the US military bases in these prefectures. For the sake of our future, it must be our task to create a turning point to change this shift in Japan's policy.

Sixty-two years have passed since the defeat of Japan in the Asia Pacific War following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some Japanese cabinet members try to justify the war by obscuring war responsibilities. On the one hand, they deny Japan's responsibility for its wartime atrocities committed against Asian neighbors, and on the other, they fail to recognize the serious criminality of the atomic bombing of Japanese civilians by the U.S. This attitude to war responsibility is closely linked to the persistent intention to remilitarize Japan. Clearly, the lawsuits in Japan on war reparations put forth by various Asian victims and court cases demanding official acknowledgement of A-bomb survivors are, at the same time, struggles against the remilitarization of Japan. We must therefore support those victims of war as much as possible. "The International Peoples' Tribunal on the Dropping of Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima & Nagasaki" is one example of such support activities. At the same time, there is an urgent need to strengthen the worldwide movement against other types of weapons of mass killing, such as DU weapons and cluster bombs. Similarly, we also need to make people aware of the nuclear recycling plants at Rokkasho in Aomori prefecture and the many nuclear power plants on Japanese soil. The world was reminded of their danger with the recent earthquake in Niigata.

Japan's constitution represents the fruition of the wisdom of mankind. In particular, Article 9 can be described as "A Declaration for World Peace." Our various activities in support of peace will gain real momentum when they are based upon the spirit of this constitution.

(Coordinator: YUASA Ichiro, Author: Yuki Tanaka)