From Japan Times (6/17/2012):
Oi decision draws international outcry
Reactor restarts hit by protests from Europe, America, Asia
By ERIC JOHNSTON
OSAKA — The decision to restart two reactors at the Oi nuclear plant has sparked international concern, with antinuclear activists and politicians in many countries sending letters of protest and holding rallies outside Japanese embassies and consulates over the past week.
Politicians from green parties in Australia and Europe, as well as doctors, activists, and labor unions, have all formally opposed the restart, citing the Fukushima disaster.
In Germany, all 53 members of the green party sent a letter of protest Tuesday to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Fukui Gov. Issei Nishikawa via the Japanese Embassy.
Also in Berlin, Rebecca Harms, a German Green and member of the European Parliament, sent a letter on behalf of European Green Party members calling for a halt to the restart.
In Australia, meanwhile, Sen. Scott Ludlam of the Australian Greens sent a letter of protest June 12 to Japan's Embassy in Canberra.
In Italy, an appeal for a moratorium on restarting nuclear power plants bearing 3,700 signatures was presented to the Japanese Embassy in Rome, while antinuclear activists in New York delivered letters opposing the restart to the city's Japanese Consulate on Friday.
A separate rally to protest the decision is planned in front of Japan's Embassy in Washington on Monday. Other antinuclear groups in Chicago and Los Angeles will hold similar events this week and also deliver letters opposing the Oi restart to local Japanese consulates.
In Asia, antinuclear activists in Thailand held a rally in front of the Japanese Embassy on Friday and urged Tokyo to rethink its decision, while Japanese residents in South Korea joined local activists for a demonstration in front of Japan's Embassy in Seoul, also Friday.
I have seen the site (Green Party in preparation in Kyoto) that posts the supposed letter by Germany's green party addressed to Japan's PM Noda, but there is no link to the original document. I am not sure whether the letter is authentic or not, as the letter posted on the Kyoto Green Party site starts out rather rudely:
"Shame on you, Mr. Noda"
Personally, I agree that the prime minister deserves the rebuke like that, but I find it hard to believe that the official letter from an established political party in Germany submitted to the Japanese embassy in Berlin would start out with "Shame on you". But I could be wrong. If German readers of this blog can find the original statement, please let me know.
30-Day free trial by following the link.
Tokyo Time
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13 comments:
I checked the official web site of the German Green Party and found nothing. What I did find, however, was the German home page of a member of the Green Party and the German Bundestag (parliament?), Dr. Thomas Gambke. It claims that he and another member of the Green Party collected nearly 6000 signatures on a protest letter to PM Noda, including signatures from all parliament (?) members of the Green Party. The site provides a link to the pdf version of the letter, which indeed starts out with the somewhat rude opening. The link is towards the bottom of the page and the letter itself is in English.
http://www.t-gambke.de/cms/default/dok/412/412313.unterschriftenuebergabe_sayonara_atomkra.html
Hope this helps.
*mscharisma*
P.S.:
Through a link on this site (http://semisottolaneve.blogspot.it/2012/06/invito-alla-protesta-globale.html), which suggests the text for a protest letter to the Japanese government, I came to a site that appears to be an official Japanese government web site (http://www.kantei.go.jp/). Here you can write a comment/protest letter to them:
https://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/forms/comment_ssl.html
*mscharisma*
Grrr, my second post apparently didn't make it through:
I had come across an Italian blog web site that suggested a letter of protest in English to the Japanese government and provided a link to what appears to be a genuine Japanese government web site (http://www.kantei.go.jp).
The government's comment page is here:
https://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/forms/comment_ssl.html
Sorry that I can't find the Italian site again with the suggest text for the protest letter. But I have confidence that readers of this blog site here will have no trouble putting their thoughts and feelings in their own words.
*mscharisma*
Grrr, my second post apparently got deleted.
I had come across an Italian blog web site that suggested a letter of protest in English to the Japanese government and provided a link to what appears to be a genuine Japanese government web site.
The government's comment page is here:
https://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/forms/comment_ssl.html
Sorry that I can't find the Italian site again with the suggest text for the protest letter.
*mscharisma*
I just dug that up, mscharisma, among many others... Sorry.
What on earth ...??? So very sorry for all the double posting.
*mscharisma*
Please find these, print them large and bring them to the rally next Friday evening in front of the PM's residence. It would be great to be able to remind the Japanese media, Noda and the DPJ that the PEOPLE OF WORLD are allied with the PEOPLE OF JAPAN against the restart of ANY nuclear reactors in Japan.
And many, many sincere thanks to all of those organizations and individuals around the world who have spoken out against Noda's nuclear war against us. I cannot tell you how deeply moving and encouraging your actions are to those of us on the front lines here in Japan. Your support gives me new energy to keep fighting. Honto ni artigato gozaimasu!
Actually the letter proper begins with "Dear Prime Minister". The "Shame on you"... is a prelude text taken from some other context, maybe a discourse by someone in Japan or whatever (not specified).
Still I am of the personal opinion that if you really feel the need to spit on or throw shoes to some criminal high profile minister or president, suit yourself. He/she probably deserves much worse.
Shoes. There's a vision. 11,000 pairs of footware wasuremono on the sidewalk in front of the PM's residence on the evening before construction starts on the new sidewalk...
Boycott Japanese products 100%. It is the only way to send the message.
*mscharisma*,
the Italian blog you talk about may be this: http://semisottolaneve.blogspot.it/2012/06/invito-alla-protesta-globale.html#more
very interesting indeed, thanks for mentioning such an initiative!
Dear Japanese readers, please excuse the German Greens for their insensitive and intrusive bluntness.
This is a mentality thing. In Germany bluntness to some degree isn't considered as being rude. They just spoke to Noda the same way they'd speak to Chancellor Merkel.
I wouldn't want to be culturally insensitive but maybe Japanese should begin doing that at least on occasion. For what I can read part of the problem is cultural: in Japanese culture confronting "superiors" is almost anathema. You can't have democracy if you are raised to think that those in charge deserve your bows instead of your spits (or either one depending how they behave, of course). IMO Japanese are culturally a bit too polite, specially with those who serve them as public managers.
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