Fascism On The Rise, #Japan Chapter #NoWarNoAbe

In Hiroshima this week, 7,000 people gathered
 to send an antiwar message to Prime Minister Abe
 of the warmongering Liberal Democratic Party

I've written before about the unique suffering of the Japanese people under the last reign of fascists. Others have written about President Obama's "pivot to Asia" and what that was likely to mean for the nation most colonized by U.S. military and corporate presence since WWII. Think General Electric and all those nuclear reactors. Think Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership, more commonly known as the TPP. Think Fukushima and Hiroshima in the same sentence.

Now that the pivot's warhawks are coming home to roost, the nation with the constitutional ban on military aggression encoded in Article 9 is experiencing what some have called a coup d'etat.

This staged act of violence at the podium of Japan's parliament involved, not opposition parties as was reported in the corporate press, but underlings of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its allies. Its purpose was to ram through a law rescinding Article 9 without debate or a roll call vote. Mission accomplished!

Commentary by Japanese American Rachel Clark:

TV Japan’s report: ”members of the ruling and the opposition parties are running to the chairman’s desk.” “They are trying to stop the decision by physical force.” The TV Japan’s “Wake Up Plus” report is wrong and problematic; the reality was totally opposite of what they have reported. 

The Chairman Konoike sat down, followed by Fukuyama board member, Sato (State Minister of Defense), and Mr. A.board member coming toward him in order to have a briefing of the question. That moment, about ten members of the ruling parties rushed to the chairman. This video captured that particular moment. As a result, Sato remained by the chairman’s desk, other two board members were pushed away from the center, and the chairman was completely surrounded by the members of ruling parties only.  

Hence the reality was “the chairman’s desk was violently occupied by the ruling parties and the meeting was continued without their voice heard by any other representatives in the hall.” In other words, it was the first bill in Japan’s political history, which was steamrolled through by force [emphasis mine].

Protesters opposed to the legislation in the hundreds of thousands have turned out in the streets of Tokyo and other cities around the nation. 

"Thousands get behind Article 9 in last-ditch rally at prime minister's office" Japan Times 

Sarah Lazare reported on the public's response to the legislation in Common Dreams:

The package is widely unpopular in Japan. According to polling information released Monday by Japanese publication The Asahi Shimbun, 68 percent of voters in the country hold that the security legislation in the current parliamentary session is unnecessary and 54 percent oppose to the bills.

Since Japan already passed a hugely unpopular state secrets act last December effectively muzzling whistleblowers and the press, the road to fascism is well-paved and ready for the tanks to roll.

As indicated by the photo at the head of this post, Japanese citizens are unlikely to lay down and let the tank of re-militarization roll over them. And, they are not alone. International activists convened in Kyoto this summer and issued this comprehensive statement:

Final Declaration from the Kyoto International Conference

 on Space and Peace (August 2, 2015)

The United Nations was established in 1946 after the Second World War to “Save the

succeeding generations from the scourge of wars, which twice in our life time has

brought untold sorrow to humankind”. The UN visualized establishing a New

International Order. But the US and the erstwhile European colonial countries have

joined together and instead of a New International Order, they have brought a “New

International Disorder”.

The entire 20th Century witnessed wars, aggressions, and assassinations in Asia, Africa

and Latin America. The imperialist countries formed the NATO military alliance which is

being used to indulge in attacks on sovereign nations and committing war crimes which

go unpunished. Even the UN is being side tracked as NATO expands its mission as the

primary resource extraction service for corporate globalization.

Instead of allowing an alternative social order to capitalism to be developed the US

engaged the USSR in a nuclear arms race. US has established approximately 1,000

military bases throughout the world. It was largely responsible for boosting global

military expenditures to more than 1.75 Trillion US Dollars. Along with allies like Saudi

Arabia and other Arab monarchies the US has over the years fostered the growth of

Taliban, Al-Qaida and terrorism throughout the Middle East, Central Asia and parts of

Africa.

Missile defense systems, key elements in Pentagon first-strike attack planning, have

been deployed around Russia and China which has helped deal a death blow to hopes

for global nuclear disarmament as both those nations have repeatedly warned that they

cannot afford to reduce their nuclear retaliatory capability at the same time the US

deploys the ‘shield’ on their doorstep.

At the beginning of the 21st Century the United Nations made another attempt to herald

a “New International Order” by adopting the “Millennium Declaration” and the Millennium

Development Goals. All UN members have accepted to eschew violence and follow

peaceful co-existence ushering disarmament and development. But again the US and

many European partners have created a “New International Disorder”.

Lies have been spoken in the governments of US & Britain and also in the UN Security

Council about the non-existent nuclear weapons in Iraq. War in Afghanistan, invasion of

Iraq, attacks on Libya, and drones attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and other nations have

led to the killing of many innocent people.

Having directed a coup d’état in Ukraine the US has helped create a deadly civil war on

Russia’s border that appears designed to destabilize the government in Moscow.

NATO has been extended up to the borders of Russia violating post-Cold War promises

to the former Soviet Union that the western military alliance would not move ‘one inch’

eastward. The US-NATO are today sending troops and heavy military hardware to

NATO members Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Georgia all along or near the

Russian border.  These provocative developments could be the trigger for WW III.

US refusal to negotiate a ban on weapons in space at the UN has left the door open for

continued development of offensive and destabilizing space technologies like the

military space plane and Prompt Global Strike systems.  US military satellites offer

global surveillance to the Pentagon and allow for targeting of virtually any place on

Earth.

The recently announced Obama ‘pivot’ of US forces into the Asia-Pacific is intended to

give the Pentagon the capability to contain and control China.  More airfields, barracks,

and ports-of-call are needed for US military operations in the region thus we see

expansion of existing bases, or construction of new bases, in places like South Korea,

Okinawa, Guam, Philippines, Australia and more.  We stand in solidarity with those local

and national movements that resist these US base expansions.

Particularly as we meet in Kyoto, Japan we declare our strong opposition to the US

deployment of a “missile defense” X-Band radar system in the local prefecture that is

provocatively aimed at China.

This Kyoto Conference declares our opposition to the dangerous spread of global

militarization which cannot be allowed to continue as we see the coming ravages of

climate change and growing global poverty.  We must all work to realize the UN ideal to

“save the succeeding generations from the scourge of wars”. This can only happen with

a powerful and unified global movement for peace, justice and environmental sanity.

We call for the conversion of the global war machine so that all life on our spaceship

Earth may live and flourish in the years to come.  We recognize the need for bold and

determined action now to ensure that another world may in fact be possible.

The United States of Fear Amidst the “Submissive Void” of the People

Source: Organizing Notes "Message from Ukraine" -- worth a read (trigger warning).

We U.S. taxpayers now find ourselves in the fearful state of supporting both neo-Nazis in Ukraine and Zionist fascists in Israel. 

At home, death is just a gun shot away.

Citizens brandishing weapons are permitted to roam our streets, sometimes threatening children made refugees by violence and poverty in Central America,

Source: Breitbart "Leaked images reveal children warehoused in crowded US cells, border patrol overwhelmed"

Source: The Daily Banter

whilst bullies scream at low income women seeking health care services. Rapists are protected rather than prosecuted by authorities at our universities. Corporations who profit by raping Earth are given a free ride as their media outlets pump out lies packaged as news to confound the masses.

Hitler’s propagandist Leni Riefenstahl noted that her work succeeded due to the “submissive void” of the German people, “especially the intelligentsia.”

How did this become our way of life?

The U.S. as a nation founded on settlement, genocide and slavery will reap what it sows -- while the fear engendered by projecting hate onto our fellow human beings works to keep us ignorant.

Source: RT "Allan Sørensen, the Middle Eastern correspondent for the Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad, said that he took the image on Wednesday in Sderot, a city about two kilometers from Gaza."

This season of Israeli youth cheering the bombing of trapped civilians in Gaza while the world watches soccer matches that displaced tens of thousands of poor people in Brazil makes for a strange vacation. 

I've been in Australia as images of children torn apart by bombs I helped pay for scroll across the screen of my self-harvested news. People I've met in Oz are no more informed than my fellow Americans, relying as they do on corporations for cues on where to pay attention.

Source: Electronic Intifada "Urgent call from Gaza civil society: act now!"

Or, in the case of the alternative types I usually find myself among, eschewing television or news of any sort for cultural pursuits that dull the sounds of screaming coming from next door.

An uneasy few noticed as Article 9 of Japan's constitution crumbled and the former imperial rapists of east Asia began to remilitarize at the behest of their best buddy the U.S. 

A handful of Australians were shocked to hear their prime minister greet the visiting prime minister of Japan with the claim that "We admired the skill and the sense of honor that [Japanese imperial troops] brought to their task.” Some attribute Australia's support of U.S. 21st century foreign wars to the perception that the Yanks saved them from Japan's imperial war machine right on their very own shores, and Australians’ fear of their inability to defend themselves as European settlers far from home. European settlers who shot the aboriginal peoples of Australia on sight as "vermin" according to a few appalled observers.

My good friend Janet Weil recommended I read Hope Into Practice: Jewish women choosing justice despite our fears, a book by Penny Rosenwasser about the struggle to rise above fear as a defining force. When I see Janet soon we'll discuss Rosenwasser's finding that she and the other members of the Jewish diaspora were raised on the constant fear of their own violent death. I think this will shed some light on a question my own students  raised this year as we considered history and current events: how can Zionists as survivors of the Nazi Holocaust project so much violence and suffering onto Palestinians? 

And I would add the questions, how can so many other Jews (not all by any means) remain silent about it? And how can the U.S. support this?

The same way they can support fascist militias slaughtering civilians in Kiev, dear children. Amid fear -- and fear-engendered ignorance -- for all.

Thankful For Truth

Source: RepublicofLakota.com, "Cooking the History Books: The Thanksgiving Massacre"

Noam Chomsky calls the U.S. a "heavily indoctrinated" society. So little truth leaks through the corporate infotainment stream that a person could go an entire lifetime without hearing more than a squeak of it. The freedom to just walk away from MSNBC and Hollywood blockbusters and MTV, from Time and "News"week, the New Yorker and the Washington Post, is seldom exercised. 

The internet has brought me so many possible truths that I was not a bit surprised to find out that it was being used to build massive dossiers on each and every one of us using it. As a truth stream, it was far too good to be true. I expect it to end any day now.

But for today, the national holiday built on genocide against the Pequot people, I am thankful for the connection that brings me in contact with others around the planet who seek true information.

Just a smattering from my morning reading:

From the Mainichi Shimbun, "Former PM's envoy was determined to disclose secret Japan-U.S. pacts

A former editor who was involved in publishing a book revealing Japan-U.S. diplomatic secrets over the reversion of Okinawa has criticized the government-sponsored state secrets protection bill (emphasis mine), which cleared the House of Representatives on Nov. 26 and is now under debate in the House of Councillors 

...[Mafumi] Azuma spent the whole night reading the manuscripts, which were compelling and accompanied by letters and memorandums detailing exchanges with then National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger and other negotiating partners. Azuma told Wakaizumi the next day that he was going to publish the book.

What a perfect piece of legislation to accompany rescinding Article 9, which constitutionally forbids Japan to have a military force capable of aggression.

From Vice media, "A Generation of US and UK War Veterans Are Being Silenced"

I was gagged by a military court in 2009. I had spilled no secrets. Rather I’d claimed Afghanistan occupation was an illegitimate, shambolic disaster. The keenest soldiers I know say the same, but I said it on television rather than in the regimental bar. I spent five months in a military jail over a banality. Others have faced similar or worse treatment.

The writer is veteran Joe Glenton.

From the same source, a shout out to Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning, one of the biggest truth tellers of our time

Heather Linebaugh...served in the US Air Force in drone intelligence between 2009 and 2012 and was "honourably" discharged....she fled to Canada, a place she felt safe to speak out from. She was good at her job, earning the nickname “Harbinger of Death” from her comrades. Not every assignment went smoothly, though: “One mission in particular, I remember that we were told to keep quiet about, and to this day, I can still not discuss it.” 

Heather says she challenged an officer of more senior rank on the issue. She asked what would happen if people spoke out about “sloppy strikes”. She was taken to her commander and warned about “talking recklessly” and asking “stupid questions”. 

In her unit there was a watchword used to keep people quite: Manning. “If we spoke out about certain missions to the general public, and definitely media, we would 'end up like Bradley Manning'." The effort to instil fear was being ramped up around the time she was leaving the military. "I saw quite a few posters going up with an image of the typical soldier sitting in a jail cell in handcuffs."

Then there's the recent blockbuster report on corporations (our real government, which does not in any way resemble democracy) infiltrating organizations that work for positive social change in order to spy on the participants. 

From Common Dreams, "Corporate Espionage and the Secret War Against Citizen Activism"

According to the study by the Center for Corporate Policy—a project of the Ralph Nader-affiliated Essential Action, today's 'Pinkerton Thugs' are staffed by former law enforcement, CIA, NSA, FBI and military employees, funded by some of the biggest-name corporations in the world, and backed by highly-secretive investigative firms that operate as spy agencies for the private sector. 

Titled Spooky Business, the 53-page study pieces together nearly 20 years of information exposing this hidden wing of the private sector, which its author Gary Ruskin says "is just the tip of the iceberg." While targets run the gamut, from anti-war to workers' rights groups to environmental organizations, they appear to have one thing in common: they are perceived as a threat to the corporate bottom-line.

One last item, this one in the category of super secret treaties your government is negotiating to crash life on this planet via giving corporations control over food and information, among other things. Never heard of the Trans-Pacific Partnership? That's no accident. 

From Common Dreams "Monsanto, the TPP, and Global Food Dominance":

“Control oil and you control nations,” said US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the 1970s. "Control food and you control the people.”

I could go on like this all day, but I have some potatoes to mash.

So that's why I am thankful today for the internet and Wikileaks, for Edward Snowden, for my fellow citizen journalists, and for Chelsea Manning -- celebrating yet another birthday in jail for telling us the truth about U.S. war crimes.