Cooperation in Murder Obligated

Three emergency bills including the "Bill to Deal with Military Attack Situations" are to be submitted to the Diet after being approved by the Cabinet on April 16.

The government's original plan is now revised into a more dangerous version during deliberation with the ruling parties. Specifically, it is shown in stipulation of "public duties to obey the government's measures." This requires not only those who will "work under orders from authorities" but also all the people in Japan to cooperate and get mobilized in war --- murder in other words. Along with the punishment on private companies which disobey government orders for storage of relevant goods, the bills aim to establish the national mobilization system by labeling uncooperative citizens as "illegal" or "unpatriotic."

Prior to that, on April 11, the government made public a guideline to deal with so-called "suspicious ships." Expressing no regret for killing 15 crews in the last December event, it is going to dispatch Self Defense Forces (SDF) units from the beginning in case "suspicious ships" are found and command them to take the "coast guard operation" without missing a chance to attack. Also stipulated in the guideline are "examination for relaxation of weapon use against suspicious ships found in the Exclusive Economic Zone" and "maintenance of weapons and promotion of training for more accurate long-distance shots." In the next "chance" the government will allow the SDF, not the Coast Guard like in the last event, to use force and make a preemptive attack without any hesitation.

In the Interest of Global Capital

What we can see in the provisions of emergency bills and the measures against "suspicious ships" is the government's strong desire to shift Japan to a "warfare state" which accepts murder as natural.

In the background is the fact that the overseas products and sales of Japanese business has amounted to more than 100 trillion yen (equivalent to a quarter of Japan's Gross Domestic Product) and the number of employees in foreign countries has reached to more than three millions (equivalent to the total number of the jobless inside Japan). Globally developed Japanese business has an impulse to require dispatching the SDF overseas and giving it a free hand to use force.

We are already in the age where the SDF "takes for granted" that it is sent abroad. The SDF is now developing its operations in East Timor and the Indian Ocean under the United Nations Peace-keeping Operations Cooperation Law and the Anti-terrorism Special Measures Law. The Japanese armed forces have already committed murder by attending the US-led retaliation war that has killed Afghan people and sinking the "suspicious ship."

Furthering this process, the emergency legislation is aimed at changing Japan into a nation that goes anywhere at its own will to levy war and commit murder as a matter of course. "Military attack situation" is a situation that Japan itself creates. Therefore, the bill allows flexibility in interpretation such as "fear of such an attack" or "situation in which a military attack is predicted."

The Koizumi Cabinet does not pay any attention to "people's security." There had been no war for "people's security" in modern Japan. The Japanese government has never even signed the International Humanitarian Law (Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions in 1977) to protect victims in armed conflicts or the International Criminal Court (ICC) Treaty to judge war crimes. It means that the government is going to mobilize the people again into aggression and murder.

Strengthen Local Calls for Scrapping the Bills

The government and ruling parties definitely said that they would start discussion in April, and pass the bills through the Lower House within May. We should immediately thrust our calls for scrapping the bills to the Diet, and petition the local governments for "No cooperation to war" and to "Protect the rights of residents." Let us advance the anti-emergency-bills movement from our community, linking it to the international movements against expansion of the retaliation "war on terrorism" and Israeli massive invasion of Palestine. (April 15)