Newsletter No. 640
News-Analysis
June 7, 2007

 

THE JAPANESE MILITARY KEPT FILES ON ANTIWAR GROUPS

The Japan Communist Party dropped a bombshell yesterday: They produced documentary evidence that the “Self-Defense Forces” (SDF) monitored, made reports, and kept files on groups and individuals opposed to the Iraq War and the GSDF deployment. These actions were carried out by the Intelligence Security Corps from at least November 2003 to February 2004. Some of these people they may have even labeled as “anti-SDF.” All of these activities are quite illegal under the Japanese Constitution.

Photo: Kazuo Shii Presents the Illegal SDF Documents
Source: Japan Communist Party

In his press conference, Communist Party leader Kazuo Shii said that his party had discovered that the SDF kept files on 293 groups and individuals, including some photographs of antiwar events. The people targeted spanned a wide range of professions like journalists, photographers, artists, and even high school students.

Shii issued a statement that said: “Such activities are clearly unconstitutional acts that violate the constitutional freedom of expression guarantees… Furthermore, taking down peoples' names and photographing protesters are acts that infringe on constitutional privacy guarantees… Our party demands that the government make clear the activities of this military division and stop this sort of illegal surveillance immediately.”

The government response has been confusing so far. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki was quoted as saying, “Any information compiled in investigations in line with the law should naturally be accepted, so if that is the case there is generally no problem.” I don’t really understand what he meant.

Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma was quoted as saying, “Yes, I think we did (conduct surveys), but I don't know if all of the contents (of the JCP papers) were genuine.” He then went on to insist that all information collected on antiwar groups were routinely discarded after only three weeks.

Defense Ministry spokeswoman Keiko Nakano added: “It is true that the army has collected information to ensure the safety of personnel dispatched to Iraq and their family members in Japan.”

Nakano and other military sources also gave some basic facts about the SDF’s Intelligence Security Corps. It was established in March 2003 in order to “monitor the activities of military personnel and gather information on people attempting to contact them.” The corps has 927 members, with more than two-thirds of them attached to the GSDF.

One thing that the newspapers are not talking about is that the head of the Defense Agency at that time was Shigeru Ishiba, who had been appointed in September 2002. Ishiba -- whom I have met personally on one occasion -- is in my estimation one of the most rightwing and militarist of all Japanese politicians today. He is a major public figure who appears regularly on television defending government defense policy and calling for the rearmament of Japan. He is all-around hawk on every military issue.

I’d like to say that he will pay a political price for almost certainly authorizing this violation of basic constitutional rights, but my expectation is that there will be no serious investigation and no accountability. So far, the media hasn’t even mentioned his name.

Finally, I should also note that in February and March 2003, I was invited to give public lectures at several events in Kitakyushu and Fukuoka in which I strongly opposed the idea that Iraq should be invaded and called on Japanese not to support such an adventure. Several hundred Japanese attended these events as it was the period in which the Iraq question was being most anxiously discussed in Japan.

I wonder if any foreigners can make the list too? If so, sign me up! I’d be proud to have a secret and illegal file compiled on me as well!

YEMENI NEWSPAPER EDITORIALIZES AGAINST TOKYO’S POLICY ON IRAQ

In other Japan-Iraq news, I have run across a summary of an article produced in Yemen recently. The summary appears in the Yemen Times, and is apparently a translation from Arabic of an editorial that just appeared in a newspaper called Al-Wahdawi. I visited the Arabic-language website of this newspaper and found some prominent pictures of former Egyptian President Gamal Abd al-Nasr. I would assume, therefore, that their general political orientation is secular and Arab nationalist. In my view, the sentiments expressed here should be taken seriously by the Japanese authorities.

The political editor of the newspaper says in his article at the same time the world is witnessing a large-scale change opposing the aggression and war on Iraq, and the war in general, according to the American policies and justifications, the Japanese government insists on refusing these facts going on in the world and with its participation in sending Japanese troops and military equipment supporting the American aggression and occupation.

The Japanese government tries to show that its role in Iraq is humanitarian participating in the reconstruction of Iraq, but this allegation is untrue and not based on a legal basis; and it is refuted by the Japanese government’s early stand in support of the war against Iraq. The Japanese government knows that any humanitarian assistance does not come via the American aggression and occupation, but through the United Nations that until now has no role Iraq, and must have a role to stop the aggression. The American occupation must end and full sovereignty returned to the people of Iraq.

This is what the Japanese government has to understand: Japan is connected with the Arabs by excellent relations and its interests with them are many and its products fill the Arabs markets. It is very important that the Japanese government should preserve the future of these relations and interests as much as the Arabs are in interested in respecting, developing and expanding them.

The Japanese people are genuine friends of the Arabs, and we are not pleased to see their government dragged behind the American aggressive policies playing a role supporting the aggression in Iraq at the expense of Iraq’s independence, resistance, sovereignty, unity of existence, and destiny that connects it to the Arab nation. Our refusal of this Japanese stance towards Iraq is emerging not from any generally hostile attitude towards Japan.