In the spirit of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, we must find ways to resist illegitimate authority. And yes, in Japan, things arer becoming worse and worse and the police are used by school officials to stifle debate and dissent. Witness the recent case of a teacher who is the viictim of heavy-handed, Gestapo-like police tactics in: Police raid retired teacher who raised flag, anthem ruckus . (22 May)…..
CONTINUATION
… Here is a story from a few months earlier,
Freedom is flagging in Japan’s public-school system , which suggests that 90 percent of the graduating students at Itabashi High School support their couragious teacher.
Meanwhile, on May 18 the Japan Times published an article by Hisahiko Okazaki, ultranationalist, saying that the deaths of SDF soldiers would be a “noble sacrifice” on behalf of U.S.-Japan relations. (This article is mysteriously missing from their online version). This is just more reason to connect the dots and see how police repression, forced patriotism, the throwing out of Article 9 and tacit support of U.S. killing in Iraq are linked to a backwards slide away from democracy for Japan.
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