Say No to War!

On February 16, 2003, there was a small peace rally in Matsuyama. I helped get the JET community involved. Here are some pictures from that day. The kanji on the sign I'm holding is pronounced hansen and means "antiwar". I gave a short speech, as did another American. I thought it was important to let the Japanese people know that not all Americans support this crazy war. My friend Emily, a Canadian, held a sign that said (in Japanese), "Honk if you're against war!" Lots of people driving by waved, gave a thumbs up, or otherwise signaled their approval, but a disappointing 20 honked out of hundreds that drove by. The unwillingness of the Japanese people to step out of line and make themselves noticed is saddening. While hundreds of thousands marched in San Francisco, New York, London, and Rome, only 5,000 turned out in Tokyo.

There was another peace rally on February 23, 2003. This time the Ehime University students involved. We had over 100 people marching down the main shopping arcade of Matsuyama. We followed that with a short relay in front of the city station. Rich spoke and played his didgeridoo. I read my poem "Seeds of War", which ended up coming out more like a rap. We made the local paper, and definitely drew a lot of attention.

There was another peace rally in Hiroshima. I went with Emily, Derek, Kaori, Brian, and Yuko. It was cool to see a bit of Hiroshima, although it was a really quick trip. I hadn't realized how easy it is to get back and forth between Hiroshima and Matsuyama. I'll definitely have to go back soon. Before the peace rally we visited the atomic bomb museum. Whoa. That was pretty heavy. Depressing. I don't even know what to say about it. For me the saddest part was a section of drawings and short stories done by survivors. One showed a little girl trying to give water to her dead mother. It was horrible.