Thursday, March 20th Tokyo time and everyone
had heard the news of the
newest military offensive against Iraq.
Thursday night and Friday were
the protests and marches. Here is
the report.
The protests in Tokyo went very well.
Over 1000 people in attendance
for sure. We ended up at the American
embassy. Lots of uniformed police,
some with riot shields and helmets, lots
of secret police near the embassy.
All ages attended, but we were struck by
the large contingent of people over 60.
Obviously highly organized, the mood of
some of their groups were a sober
reminder that pain and death are the number
one outcomes of war. Please remind
people next time someone mentions stock
portfolios and how clever they are.
Also noted was the plethora of signs.
Close to one quarter of the marchers
were carrying hand-made signs, as well
as the heart-shaped signs coinciding
with the organized march (which included
an A Course and a B Course)
Robert Koster and I played music (guitar
and alto sax) on Friday. We met a
group of about 10 jambe drummers (with
tenor sax) who we stopped to jam
with along the march route. After
that we bumped into a group of Okinawan-born
20-somethings drinking some mighty strong
alcohol from said place. One of them
was playing shamisen, so we jammed for
a bit, funking up his traditional melody.
When we arrived at the embassy the two people
that had bullhorns graciously
amplified us to lead the chant of "Senso
Hantai", among others. The other group
on the other side of the street were led
by approximately seven monks wearing
bright orange robes and hitting single
head drums with wooden mallets. At around
nine o'clock one of the organizers said,
"Thank-you very much for your hard work.
We will be here Saturday and Sunday night
as well."
Not more than five foreigners were seen at the embassy, including us.
These photos are from Thursday night, near
the embassy, the start day of the
newest campaign. This war has been
going on for a period of at least 12 years
with American and British planes dropping
bombs on Iraq sometimes on a
weekly basis. The picture of the
deformed human is a result of radiation poisoning
due to use of depleted uranium, a substance
included in American weaponry.
Note: His pictures were too latge to print. My picture
shrinking software
is on the computer that blew it's motherboard.
There is no link between the destruction of the World Trade Towers and Iraq.
There IS a link between Vice President Dick
Cheney and his company's eventual
profit from the oil extraction and sales
of Iraqi oil. This is but one example...
One final note:
One group of marchers had 30 cm diameter
pretzels attached to sticks.
They enjoyed it when I showed them my sign,
"Eat another pretzel, asshole".
Chris Kozak
Tokyo