June 14th Anti-War Struggle: Powerful Demonstration Led by Zengakuren “Stop the Japanese-American War on China!”

Toranomon 3-chome intersection near the US Embassy

On Saturday, June 14, the national rally and march “Down with Trump and Ishiba! Stop the Japan-US War of Aggression Against China!” organized by the Grand March Against Constitutional Revision and War was held at Shiba Park in Tokyo, bringing together 1,000 people. Led by Zengakuren (All-Japan Federation of Student Autonomous Bodies) and a group of young workers with white helmets, the demonstration broke through the crackdown by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Departments’ riot police units and advanced to the U.S. Embassy and the Prime Minister’s Office. The June 14 mobilization, carried out in solidarity with more than 2,000 anti-Trump demonstrations across the United States against the military parade, took place against the backdrop Israeli bombings on Iran and the global war situation, and an international civil war, staged a militant anti-war demonstration in Tokyo, the Japan’s capital.

Anger over the unjust arrest of a student

“The US Embassy is right there ahead of us. Are you ready?”

On the orders of Zengakuren Deputy Secretary-General Sae Ikenohata, the White Helmets Contingent, composed of 150 Zengakuren members and young workers at the head of the demonstration, protesters locked arms and approached the Toranomon 3-chome intersection. The US Embassy was about 200 meters close ahead At the last minute, the Metropolitan Police Department forced a change in the route of the demonstration, which was supposed to pass in front of the US embassy. The will of Japanese imperialism and state power is to protect the US embassy—Trump—at all costs. The riot police with shields set up a roadblock, attacking protesters from both sides, attempting to tear off their arms and force them to fall.

“Smash the Japan-US Security Treaty! Remove the military bases!” “No to war! Overthrow Ishiba!” “No to war! Overthrow Trump!” The protesters raised their voices and crossed their arms more tightly. Responding to the civil war-like uprisings in the United States, they advanced with a fiery determination to crush the root cause of the war, US-Japanese imperialism, in solidarity with the struggling Palestinian, Asian, and Okinawan peoples. Terrified by the appearance of this militant demonstration, the riot police attempted to break down the arm-in-arm formation with blatant hatred, but the protesters fought back this attack. Cornered, the riot police officer pinned a female student from the Zengakuren to the ground on the wet road, stripped her clothes, grabbed her arms and legs upside down, and unjustly arrested her. This constitutes a sexual assault and violence against a woman. It is absolutely unacceptable!

However, Japanese imperialist and state power cannot under any circumstances crush the uprising of women fighting to reclaim politics and violence. The protesters intensified their anger, overcoming the riot police’s attempts to disrupt the demonstration throughout, and carried through a militant protest against the US Embassy and the Prime Minister’s Office. In the third contingent that followed, a worker was unjustly arrested but was released on the same day.

“Stop Aggressive War Against China!”
Tomoko Horaguchi, Suginami Ward Council member( center) and Michitoshi Seki (right) led the demonstration

Akiko Hoshino, Co-chair of Hoshino-Osaka Defense Committee (left), and other demonstrators hold a banner which reads “Don’t turn Okinawa into a missile launch pad!” “Remove All Military Bases! Smash Japan-US Security Treaty!”

Students, Youth, and Women on the Front Lines

At a rally preceding the march, the participants one after another expressed their determination to defeat the Japanese imperialism, which is pushing the Emperor forward and rushing into a war of aggression against China 80 years after World War II.

The moderator was Yusei Chin, vice-president of Zengakuren. Lawyer Shunkichi Takayama, an initial endorser of the Grand March, greeted on behalf of the organizers, declaring, “Today is the day to mobilize our anger against the war. Are you ready?”

Tomoko Horaguchi, a Tokyo’s Suginami Ward council member, gave the keynote speech, condemning the Emperor’s arrogant refusal to admit their war crimes and the Japanese imperialism’s attempt to drag Asia back into war. She called for a resolution to launch an anti-war demonstration to overthrow Ishiba and pledged to expand the Grand March movement, “We declare that we will turn the fight against discrimination against women into a movement that will unleash the anger of youth, students, and women to end the war and eradicate discrimination and oppression from society.”

In his appeal, Akamine Chiaki from the Grand March Okinawa emphasized the need to take back the student unjustly arrested in the struggle against the Emperor’s visit to Okinawa, and to erupt the struggle against the Security Treaty and bases in Okinawa in order to overthrow the Emperor system–i.e. Japanese imperialism. Ryo Miyahara, secretary-general of the August 6 Hiroshima Grand Action Organizing Committee, called for a struggle against the Emperor’s visit to Hiroshima on June 19 and to make August 6 Hiroshima Action a major struggle. Ayano Matsumoto from Zengakuren, who was sexually assaulted by a Palestinian man, walk-in participants of the demonstration on April 28 in Shibuya area last year, said that in order to forge genuine solidarity with Palestine, we must not hesitate to criticize the perpetrator who belong to an oppressed nation, and called for the creation of a movement that responds to anger at and fight against discrimination against women and sexual exploitation, a trusted movement.

After a youth appeal for donations, Masahiro Kawasaki, secretary-general of the Doro-Sorengo (Confederation of National Railway Motive Power Unions) and executive committee member of Doro-Chiba, emphasized that “Trade unions cannot exist without opposing war and combating discrimination, xenophobia, and nationalism.” Nobuharu Ito of the Sanrizuka Shibayama United Opposition League Against the Construction of Airport declared that they would protect the farmland of Takao Shito, corner the airport company, and smash the Narita military airport.

Among the comrades who came from across the country, Takeshi Nishino of the Grand March Kansai affirmed that he would be at the forefront of the struggle to break the discriminatory imperialist ideology. A young woman from Tokyo declared, “As workers, we will fight to prevent a war of aggression against China and overthrow imperialism,” while a young woman from Fukushima declared, “We in Fukushima will stand up against the nuclear war and fight to end the Japanese imperialist Ishiba government. This is my response to the struggle in Okinawa.” From Zengakuren, a recently joined student issued an impassioned appeal: “We will devote our lives to the revolution to prevent a nuclear war that will destroy humanity, and we will surely conquer a new world for the working class.” Another student declared that, as a citizen under Japanese imperialism, he would categorically prevent another war of aggression.

The June 14 struggle, led by students, youth, and women, has decisively paved the way for an explosion of antiwar struggles this summer.