Sunday, July 15, 2012

"July 16 Goodbye Nuclear Protest" in Yoyogi Park, Tokyo


(UPDATE) The organizer says 170,000 people have gathered in the park.

This is Channel 2 Main Stage:



Streaming by Ustream


Anti- (or beyond-, if you like) nuclear celebrities are giving speeches with high-sounding words, how nuclear power has been pressed on the poor regions, talking about happiness of mankind without nuclear power, etc., etc. Now, some comedienne from Osaka with mohawk hair is shouting into the microphone.

And all I can think about while listening to these people is that old mother and her daughter in the no-entry zone in Fukushima, without water, without gas, whom (ex-journalist) Takashi Uesugi visited.

===========================================

The organizer, "Sayonara Nuke", hopes to attract 100,000 people.

If I remember right, it was somewhat like this last year - several months after the March 11 nuclear accident, several organizations started to stage anti-nuclear ("beyond nuclear" 脱原発, as they phrase it) gatherings and marches. I was rather disinterested in those events, with celebrities giving emotive speeches and ordinary citizens participate and chant "Beyond nuclear".

I couldn't care less last year as I was more interested in and worried about the radiation contamination of the environment and food. I remember often wondering why these people looked content "protesting" against nuclear power in the most generalized term after one of the worst nuclear accidents in history had happened in their own country with very tangible damage, particularly in Fukushima and southern Tohoku and northern Kanto.

Well the big gathering is back in Tokyo, in Yoyogi Park. It's just started, and you can view it on IWJ's 9 USTREAM channels:

Ch2,
Ch3,
Ch4,
Ch5,
Ch6,
Ch7,
Ch8,
Ch9,
Ch10

The channels I've checked says "Recorded Live". I don't know what's the deal is, but I hope it will start netcasting live soon.

This year, I am less disinterested because of totally citizen-based demonstrations that have been cropping up all over Japan.

Here's Channel 3, at the Second Stage. Some kind of funny act by a chubby man dressed as a devil, when I saw it:



Live stream by Ustream

23 comments:

doitujin said...

so many ads.......

Little Canary said...

Another matsuri event cant take it seriously....

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@little canary, I really couldn't care less whatever the woman in mohawk hair was shouting. I don't like this event, as I updated above. This is what the government highly approves of - meaningless.

Kna said...

Hi, I'm not shure because here in France the video is very jerky and without sound, but I don't think the mohawk singer is a woman, but rather "Lee Tabasco", from the "Frying Dutchman" rock band. They allready have organized the "humanERROR" parade for the one year anniversary of the disaster, playing her protest song with the same name, humanERROR. It have been translated in some foreign languages by volunteers (including me for French), and and I don't think they have a lot of complicity with the government. Please listen : http://youtu.be/RatmUMleswQ

Anonymous said...

meaningless, eh? what a load of shit. what will they do when the whole of Japan is brought to a standstill? if it is so meaningless, why are the noda gang squirming so much lately? and why have the cops gone into panic mode on friday nights? your attitude is what's meaningless.

Anonymous said...

Attitude? Yes, this should be the attitude of Japanese people:

"I'm sorry but I don't want to be an Emperor, that's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood, for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say "Do not despair". The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die liberty will never perish. Soldiers: don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you, enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate, only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers: don't fight for slavery, fight for liberty. In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written: "The kingdom of God is within man" Not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men; in you, you the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let us use that power, let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future, and old aged security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfill that promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfill that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness. Soldiers! In the name of democracy, let us all unite!"

Anonymous said...

FNN has aerial video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w36mUbk0ak0&list=PL6A55103C112EE926&feature=plcp

I'm reading 200,000 people on other blogs

Anonymous said...

Nice still aerial shot here:

http://toyotaroudousya.blog135.fc2.com/blog-entry-713.html

Says 170,000 people. Gee and they did all that without any help from Hakuhodo

Anonymous said...

Yeah it was a Dentsu job.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Yeah anon at 11:04PM, reading your comment I feel what I've been doing since March 11, 2011 is rather meaningless...

Anonymous said...

laprimavera -

What you've been doing since March 11, 2011 has been absolutely necessary. 99.999% of us are extremely grateful for your selfless work.

Anonymous said...

Kna, there was a woman with mohawk before the flying dutchman.

Anonymous said...

Words from these celebrity figures were meaningless to me. Talking about world peace, wonderful nuclear-free world, blah blah blah, while people in no-entry zone in Fukushima are without water and gas, completely ignored by the government and people who gathered in that park today.

Anonymous said...

I'd still welcome any one of those 170,000 demonstrations or speakers to the Diet as a replacement for Noda, Edano, Hosono and any of the other DPJ sociopaths who are doing the bidding of the nuclear mura.

Anonymous said...

About the old ladies living in the exclusion zone, am I missing something? Aren't they there because they want to?

Anonymous said...

dont see much in the mass media. Anyone?

only thing i came across in terms of coverage:
http://japandailypress.com/japans-largest-anti-nuclear-rally-in-tokyo-draws-over-170000-166711

Anonymous said...

@3:19 the younger lady is there because she is afraid that her mother will die the moment she moves her somewhere else, as it happened to many elderly after the quake. So:
Yes, they are there because they want to and they want to because they do not have a choice.
No, they did not want their house and land sprayed with nuclear waste.
No, they did not pocket any of the money that Tepco saved by not securing Fukushima 1.
Is there anything else you are missing?
Beppe

Anonymous said...

Beppe, the mother would die anyway, either at home or in a hospital. They decided to stay there, even if the government decided to evacuate the area, so it's there choice to remain in an area without electricity or gas. Or are we really expecting the government to restart those services in areas that are not going to be uninhabited for decades?

In any case, I don't understand why the demonstration is contrasted to the situation of those two ladies. People are protesting so something like this doesn't happen again.

Greyhawk said...

I have seen many people in my life who do not have the courage to stand up and speak for themselves but are more than willing to condemn those who do. These people are cowards. They are envious of those with courage.

Anonymous said...

Anon 7:59AM, no, at least those celebrities are not. They are protesting to feel good and righteous, and as being celebrities they like big crowd. They had a woman from Fukushima who has appeared in events like this since last year, who has pleaded with the government "please let us live".

The mother would die anyway? That's infuriatingly disgusting remark.

Anonymous said...

Greyhawk, you speak like one of the organizers of Tokyo Friday march...

Anonymous said...

@7:59 me and you will die anyways as well but as to myself I am in no hurry; the lady is not in a hurry to part from her mother either, it seems.
There is no one even carrying propane cylinders to their home, or water for that matter.
I do not understand either why the demo and those ladies are contrasted but they are still in a miserable situation because of the nuclear accident.
Beppe

Anonymous said...

It's like speaking of wonderful world where everyone lives in peace while the house is burning down all around them. Or speaking of the need to help those in need when the very people who could use your help is right beside you, suffering.

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