March 15, 2011

Nukes and the Japanese society

"The nuclear system, both military or civil, is one of the most violent ones that patriarchal society has invented and developed. Nuclear power grows particular well in an undemocratic atmosphere." -- Satomi Oba, 1999

Satomi Oba, published by WISE News Communique on May 11, 1999

"In the new Japan, sexism and racism seem to be getting more serious. The United Nations' report, as well as the public opinion in the world, have pinpointed sex slavery by the Japanese military during World War II. But the Japanese government continues to refuse to pay war compensation to the victims. The right-wing political forces which call their ideology "Liberal Historical View" continues to strengthen their influence. The election for a new city mayor on April 11 is a good example for this nationalistic atmosphere. Shintaro Ishihara, the new governor of Tokyo, is known as one of the most hawkish nationalists in Japan, though he is reported as "independent" from any political party. He has actually been one of the most powerful members of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the leading political party. He denies Japan's war crime such as the Nanjing Massacre in China, and his supporters never admit the fact of the sex slavery during WW II. Moreover, they have aggressively continued to attack the Teachers Unions or other human rights groups through the newspapers, on TV, etc. Different from other Asian countries, the Japanese media, which is mostly controlled by men, shows little criticism to such dangerous emergence of nationalism. p>In Hiroshima prefecture, the authorities strengthened its nationalistic pressure on the educational system. At the end of February, one of the headmasters of a high school committed suicide after the continuous threatening and harassment which the authorities allegedly "encouraged or supported".

Since the defeat of Japan in 1945, the Japanese democracy has for a large part been led by trade unions or political parties. But during the last two decades, more and more people have been becoming independent from parties or large organizations which are still under control by bureaucracy and hierarchy. In the 1990s, the power of the trade unions and political parties which opposed to war and/or the country's nuclear policy are declining all the way. When most of the opposition parties, such as the Socialist Party or the Buddhist Party which was in coalition with the LDP, changed their policy and agreed to compromise, their political influence decreased further.

After WW II and the occupation by the US, Japan became the most faithful follower, politically and economically, of that former enemy, the United States. In Japan, there are hundreds of thousands of US soldiers and bases which are equipped with the most modern and high-tech weapons, in Okinawa, in Iwakuni, and so on. Those bases are always suspected to contain nuclear weapons and none of the US officials has denied that. The US bases in Japan clearly contributed to the US war efforts in Korea, in Vietnam, and in Iraq. On the other hand, Japan has the world's second powerful military, called Self-Defense Forces, and it continues to cooperation with the US military.

The end of the Cold War didn't bring the abandoning of the US-Japan military alliance, instead its role was strengthened not only in the Far East but in the wider area. Violating Japan's constitution which prohibits Japan from possessing any nuclear forces or being involved in a war, the New Guideline for Defense now presented at the Diet is to force the nation to support the US war when there is an emergency on the Korean Peninsula or another part of Asia. For the last half century after WW II, and after the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there has been strong anti-war and anti-nuclear sentiment in Japan. Who could imagine that most of the parties allowed the strengthened military alliance by which Japan's big brother, the US, can do anything he likes?

In the rapid economic development from the 1960s to the 1980s, the nuclear industry enjoyed "happy growing" in Japan. The backbone of the government's strategy was the US "Atoms for Peace". It was controversial in the US because of the fear of nuclear proliferation, but the US nuclear society wanted to sell a large amount of enriched uranium to Japan. Now Japan has 52 commercial nuclear reactors and a failed fast breeder reactor. It is still pursuing an unusually huge plutonium program. The government insists that we need more plutonium because uranium will soon run out and plutonium must be an "essential domestic" energy resource. The proposed MOX fuel-utilizing program is raising a number of questions, from the view of safety, economy, or nuclear proliferation. Especially governments on the route of the MOX fuel shipment from Europe to Japan are raising a protest.

The current political and undemocratic atmosphere in Japan is not supportive of the anti-nuclear movements in Japan. With their total forces, the nuclear industry seems to crush down the people's opposition to nuclear energy. Even in Maki town in Niigata prefecture, they want to dismiss and reverse the result of the 1996 referendum, in which the residents clearly voted against the construction of a nuclear power plant.

After the December 1997 COP3 (the Kyoto Conference to Prevent Global Warming), the government decided to construct 20 more nuclear power plants in Japan to reduce the emission of CO₂. This has nothing to do with the conclusion of the COP3, but the Japanese media has been a tool not only of the government but also of the industry for a long time. The Japanese media earned tens of millions of yen thanks to the beautiful advertisement campaign, which says, "Nuclear energy prevents global warming". This is really shameful, being deceitful and unrealistic. Green Action in Kyoto and the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center in Tokyo have just started a postcard campaign to mass media with a demand to cease such unfair advertisements or reports. They selected 10 major newspapers and five broadcasting companies, and printed 100,000 postcards, each of which asks the editors or the directors to publish fairer information on nuclear issues. This campaign is being directed by women activists from those two civil groups.

As everywhere, once women start a spontaneous movement against nukes, against uranium mining, or construction of nuclear power plants, they will soon notice that they are facing a gigantic monster which, with all its power, attack the nameless people. Japanese women have long been defeated through the wrong education and social system, though they traditionally had power in the family. It is said that the modern family after WW II needed the women as full-time housekeeper, while men were mobilized into the factories during the rapid economic development. While women lost their economic existence and self-determination in such systems, it was proved that many of them were beaten when their family was in crisis.

Here in Japan, women hesitate to go into politics, because politics is dirty and it costs too much. Tens of millions of dollars are flowing among men, while women stop at supermarket when tomatoes are on sale for one dollar. It is very hard to put an end to this complicated, violent and inhuman world.

Women feel the deep grief for this condition, and are fighting at many places. For several years now I have been involved in the anti-nuclear movement and I have seen many women and children crying, speaking, laughing, singing, and throwing themselves in front of the authorities. I saw them in Korea, in Taiwan, in Indonesia, in the Philippines, in Thailand, in India, and in Japan, too. And I am convinced that women will find an alternative, supporting each other. For we know that life has to be celebrated."

Satomi Oba passed away suddenly in 2005, at the age of 54. We remember Satomi Oba.