10/5 International Day Of Action To Defend Anti-War Japanese Teachers

AFT 2121 Exec Board Resolution In Support Of October 5 2007 Day of Action To Defend Japanese Anti-War Teachers


International Day Of Action For Anti-War Japanese Teachers & Against
Militarism

Whereas the Japanese people have a long history of opposition to war and
Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution prohibits Japan from developing a
growing military force and militarized society along with a militarized
education system, and

Whereas the cost of war has been catastrophic for the Japanese people, the
youth and education workers as well as the people of various other Asian
countries, and

Whereas the growing drive for militarization has led to the re-writing of
history books to censor the role of Japan in World War II, which included
slave labor and sex slaves in order to justify Japanese militarism, and

Whereas the U.S. government has encouraged Japan to violate Article 9 and to
use its military in wars (currently in Iraq) and the expansion of U.S. bases
in Japan for greater Japanese military activity in the Middle East, and

Whereas the U.S. government has supported the elimination of this anti-war
Article in the Japanese constitution in order to further militarize Japan,
and

Whereas the Japanese government has railroaded the legislation of the
National Referendum Law to eliminate Article 9, and prohibit teachers and
public workers from participating in any movement in opposition to amending
the Constitution, and

Whereas the increased funding for the military has meant decreases in
funding for teachers and the educational system of Japan, and

Whereas hundreds of Japanese teachers have been punished and harassed for
refusing to stand in front of the national flag, "Hinomaru," and for
refusing to sing the national anthem, "Kimigayo," or to play the piano
accompaniment in graduation and matriculation and other school ceremonies
and,

Whereas these demands and directives instituted by the education system have
unjustly violated the teachers’ freedom of thought and conscience,

Therefore, be it resolved that the American Federation of Teachers, Local
2121, protest the retaliation and discrimination against Japanese teachers
for refusing to stand before the national flag, "Hinomaru," and for refusing
to sing the national anthem, "Kimigayo," or to play the piano accompaniment
in graduation and other school ceremonies and that AFT Local 2121 will send
letters protesting these policies and call for their removal, and

AFT Local 2121 call on the Japanese and Tokyo municipal governments to stop
the harassment, punishment and possible firings of Japanese teachers and
other related actions by the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education against
sisters Nezu and Kawarai, and

AFT Local 2121 affirm its support for the rights of Japanese teachers and
all public employees to lobby against any changes in the Japanese
constitution, and

AFT Local 2121 send this statement to the Japanese Consulate and participate
in a delegation to meet with the Japanese consular officials to express our
opposition and concerns, and

AFT Local 2121 support sending a delegation of teachers to Japan to
Investigate the growing danger of militarization of the Japanese education
system and report the findings to the next CFT and AFT conventions, and

AFT Local 2121 call on all Bay Area Congressional officials to oppose
changing the Japanese Constitution Article 9, which prevents the
militarization of Japan, and finally

AFT Local 2121 send this resolution to the education unions of
Japan and appropriate unions in other countries, urging concurrence and
support for the teachers under attack in Japan and to focus International
Teachers Day, October 5, 2007, on supporting the rights of Japanese teachers
to lobby against the changes of the Japanese constitution and against the
repression of those teachers who refuse to stand in the presence of the
flag, "Hinomaru," and participate in singing the national anthem,
"Kimigayo," and finally

AFT Local 2121 support action at Japanese consulates and embassies around
the world on October 5, 2005 to show our support for anti-war activist
teachers and to oppose the militarization of Japan and we will seek
concurrence from and participation by affiliated bodies.

Submitted By AFT 2121 Members
Allan Fisher
Rodger Scott
Pablo Rodriguez

http://www.aft2121.com
Mailing address: 311 Miramar Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94112
Phone: 415-585-2121
Fax: 415-585-4305



1. Why Japanese teachers oppose enforcement of "Hinomaru and Kimigayo"(national flag and anthem)
(1) Hinomaru and Kimigayo instill militarism
The reason why Japanese teachers are opposing to enforcement of "Hinomaru and Kimigayo" is they have been playing a vital role in inspiring militarism.
"Hinomaru" effectively mobilized Japanese people into aggressive wars: in the Japan-China War (1894) and the Japan-Russia War (1904-05) and in the succeeding wars, soldiers were sent to the battlefields backed up by enthusiastically waved numerous small flags of Hinomaru and victories were celebrated by fanatic Hinomaru march.
The primary school textbook of 1942 for third grade students reads: "Hinomaru is proudly hoisted where the enemy force is driven away and the territory is occupied. Soldiers gather under the Hinomaru and heartily shout, ‘Banzai’ (Long live the Emperor)!"Nobody can deny the historical fact that Hinomaru and Kimigayo not only symbolize Japanese aggressive war, colonial domination and oppressive state of Emperor, which massacred 20 millions of Asian people and sacrificed 3 millions of Japanese people as well, but also served as effective spiritual tool of national mobilization.
Words of Kimigayo mean that the reign of the Emperor may prevail forever. In the prewar time, school ceremonies, such as the National Foundation Day or the Emperor’s Birth Day were practiced under standardized strict instructions with unanimous choir of Kimigayo and worship of the holy pictures of the Emperor and the Empress. It was a ritual that instilled a mindset of absolute obedience to the Emperor and the State among school children.
Not a few people still resist to inheriting the symbols of the former Emperor’s State, the Great Japanese Empire, as the symbols of the postwar Japan. A majority of teachers are opposed to enforce "Hinomaru and Kimigayo", which divide the public opinion, in school ceremonies.
Japan Teachers Union (JTU), the major teachers’ union in Japan, to which I belong, established a general stand of the union on "Hinomaru and Kimigayo" on the 1975 Annual Convention. Though later on in 1999, the National Flag and the Anthem Law was passed in the Diet, the JTU has not officially changed its political stand, which states as follows:
"Considering the words and the historical role of Kimigayo, we regard its revival as an open denial of the fundamental principle of the Constitution of people’s sovereignty and the democratic principle of public education. Therefore, we firmly oppose to this."
"Considering the historical fact that Hinomaru served as symbol of the Emperor’s State under the Meiji Consti-
tution, we oppose to the attempt of reviving the spirit of Hinomaru. We also reject the scheme of forcibly bringing Hinomaru in classrooms by means of the official curri-
culum guidelines. Our stand is to organize discussion on analyzing the background of these administrative policies and to confront these offensives through establishing our own principled policy on independent curriculum."
(2) How the governmental has enforced "Hinomaru and Kimigayo" in schools—a historical analysis
After World War II, the Japanese government has pushed on with revival and enforcement of "Hinomaru and Kimigayo" in line with the rearmament drive and consolidation of Japan-US Security Alliance.
The first step was made in 1950 by the statement of the then Education Minister, Amano, who strongly urged to hoist Hinomaru and to sing Kimigayo on national holidays. It was the time when the Korean War just broke out and the Police Reserve Force was set up as predecessor of the Self Defense Forces by the order of the US Occupation Forces. In 1953, the talk of the then Japanese prime minister Ikeda and the US vice state secretary Robertson confirmed that Japan went forward with cultivating patriotism and nursing spontaneous spirit of self defense through public education. In 1958 on the eve of the revision of Japan-US Security Treaty (in 1960), the Ministry of Education officially made it obligatory to hoist Hinomaru and sing Kimigayo in schools for the first time in the official curriculum guidelines.
It was just about 1985, when the Nakasone administration vowed to play a role of "unsinkable aircraft carrier", that is, Japanese peninsula (as a partner of Japan-US Security Alliance) to rush for Japanese militarization, that administrative enforcement of "Hinomaru and sing Kimigayo" was accelerated in public schools. The Ministry of Education issued in 1985 an order to prefectural administrations to strengthen their guidance on "Hinomaru and Kimigayo" practice in public schools, publishing how Hinomaru was hoisted and Kimigayo was sung in actual school life of every prefecture. The investigation discovered that almost no public schools sang Kimigayo in Okinawa and Kyoto, whose teachers were consequently attacked bitterly by the administration. Disciplinary measures began to be taken on those teachers who refused to stand up and sing Kimigayo in front of Hinomaru in several cities since the official curriculum guidelines made it obligatory to practice "Hinomaru and Kimigayo" ritual in 1989.
The National Flag and Anthem Law was legislated in 1989 simultaneously with the Emergency legislation and bills on Guidelines for Japan-US Defense Cooperation. Before the legislation of this law, Hinomaru and Kimigayo were not statutory defined as national flag and anthem respectively, which had given enough reason to reject administrative orders in regard to the Hinomaru and Kimigayo practice in schools. Once the said law was implemented, enforcement of Hinomaru and Kimigayo ritual in school ceremonies got momentum, though the law have no provision to make Hinomaru and Kimigayo practice obligatory.
The Ministry of Education, after achieving its goal of nation-
wide practice of the Hinomaru and Kimigayo ritual almost 100%, turned to investigate how school ceremonies were actually practiced according to the administrative directions. Its instructions directed minutely where Hinomaru should be hoisted, that is, not in the corner, but in front of the ceremony platform, etc. The school ceremony program should write clearly: the anthem sung in unison in live, not by tape-recorder reproduction. The Metropolitan Board of Education under the leadership of Ishihra, the Fascist Tokyo Governor, stood on the forefront of the outrageous offensive on teachers in the Hinomaru and Kimigayo issue.
(3) October 23rd (2003) directive of the Metropolitan Board of Education under Ishihara triggered an explosive development of refusal to stand up
Seven months after the shock and awe invasion of Iraq, the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education issued a directive on October 23 to the principals of Tokyo public schools on graduation and entrance ceremonies. The directive gives instructions on ceremony procedure into details: Hinomaru should be hoisted in front of the ceremony platform together with the Metropolitan flag; teachers and students should be seated to face Hinomaru; upon the oral suggestion of the master of the ceremony, teachers should order students to stand up and sing Kimigayo in unison facing Hinomaru, and so on. The directive demanded that principals strictly practice the instructions in ceremony practice. Principals were put under threat of degradation unless they completely implement the directive. Furthermore, it was forbidden to give a preliminary notice to students on the school ceremony, a notice that used to explain that it was up to every one whether to sing Kimigayo or not, to sit down or go out. The school administration warned teachers, saying, "Those teachers who failed to make students stand up for Kimigayo will be regarded as disobedient teachers to the official curriculum guidelines or incompetent teachers." Thus teachers were driven to force students to follow the order. On the other hand, school children were suggested to stand up and sing Kimigayo if they did not want to have their respected teachers reprimanded by disobedience. It was a nasty trick of the school administration.
In every public school in Tokyo, teachers were handed over work order that demanded strict practice of Hinomaru and Kimigayo ritual. It meant that teachers would be disciplined, if they refused to stand up for Kimigayo. School ceremonies in 2004 (the following year of the October 23 directive) were practiced against the background of wartime atmosphere because the Self-Defense Forces was dispatched to the battlefield of Iraq for the first time after World War II. The executives of teachers unions regretfully issued orders to follow the work order of school administration under the pretext of defending union organizations and members. It was an apparent diversion of the union’s policy that instructed union members not to stand up, nor to sing, nor to play piano to accompany on school ceremonies.
Notwithstanding, in graduation and entrance ceremonies in March and April in 2004, 243 teachers carried out disobedience, refusing to stand up for Kimigayo in defiance of anticipated disciplinary measures. It was "40 second strike" of teachers. They acted as responsible teachers against war-mobilizing education and as proud education workers against war.
(4) How the refusal to stand has been continuously developed and our current battles
Since 2004, the struggle against Hinomaru and Kimigayo enforcement has been developed stubbornly for four years.
The Metropolitan Board of Education even dispatched board functionaries to watch school ceremonies and resorted to criminal prosecution of disobedient teachers. To name one of the numerous cases, a retired high school teacher was indicted only for distributing to the parents in a school ceremony photocopies of a weekly article that criticized the Metropolitan Board of Education. He was fined 200 thousand yen ($ 1800) in the first instance. [the case was reported in the Los Angels Times, June 1, 2006, the Financial Times, May 31, the Japan Times, May, 31ÅCJapan Times, July 6, etc.]
School ceremonies in 2005 were almost besieged by police: the Metropolitan Police Department and the Metropolitan Board of Education closely cooperated and dispatched police detectives to every public school. Three workers who distributed flyers in support of disobedient teachers were arrested. The flyers explained to the students and their parents about the liberty of not standing up for Kimigayo in front of Hinomaru. All these intimidations failed to suppress angry and defiant teachers’ struggle in the second year of disobedience.
The Metropolitan Board of Education mercilessly retaliated against the disobedient teachers: those who refused to stand up for Kimigayo for the first time got reprimanded; those who refused for the second time got pay reduction of one tenth for a month; for the third time, one tenth pay reduction for six months; for the fourth time, suspension for a month and for the fifth time, three month suspension. Those teachers who were reprimanded must suffer three months stoppage of wage raise. When they are in thirties, their pay will lose more than 10 million yen ($90,000) for the whole life. During suspension, teachers get no pay, their bonus will be reduced to half or zero and side job is forbidden.
Retired public employees of Tokyo (older than 60 years) are to be hired again institutionally as temporary employees. Those teachers who refused to accept Hinomaru and Kimigayo enforcement and are reprimanded once, are excluded from the list of re-employment. The announcement of re-employment will be cancelled for disciplined teachers. Thus disobedient teachers are deprived of every means of getting income till they are able to obtain pension several years later.
Disciplined teachers are forced to attend a "preventive training against recurrent misbehavior". The participants are required to admit their misconducts and to write down self-examination. Originally the system was intended to train those teachers who are punished for sexual harassment or driving while drunk. The Metropolitan Board of Education shamelessly made use of it as an instrument to force disciplined teachers into conversion. They vigorously fought back this attempt, categorically rejecting to repent their actions and stormed the trainers with incessant questions.
In defiance of the administrative retaliation by means of severe disciplinary measures, the struggle to refuse to stand up for Kimigayo has been carried on, gaining momentum. Though repeated disobedience gets heavier punishment, a lot of teachers continue struggle and the fighting rank are provided year by year with fresh dissidents who don’t fear disciplinary measures.
Though the teachers in Tokyo are courageously fighting, the Japan Teachers Union, who should be responsible for nationwide development of the struggle against Hinomaru and Kimigayo enforcement, has totally abandoned to organize union action. In face of this inaction of the JTU leadership, rank and file members have independently launched a solidarity action across the country, in declaring refusal of Hinomaru and Kimigayo ritual or actually refusing to stand up, with a common slogan: "Don’t let fighting Tokyo teachers isolated in the struggle!"
Lawsuits
We have been engaged in many lawsuits. On September 21 last year the Tokyo district court issued an encouraging judgment for the disciplined teachers. The judgment ruled that the enforcement of Hinomaru and Kimigayo violates the Constitution and illegal and that no disciplinary measures should be taken for the refusal of Hinomaru and Kimigayo practice.
The Supreme Court’s judgment in February this year immediately before graduation ceremonies was quite contrary to the preceding Tokyo district court decision in its contents. It admitted the punishment of the music teacher who refused piano accompaniment to Kimigayo in a school ceremony.
Whether Japanese teachers will be able to establish their right to refuse Hinomaru and Kimigayo worship depends upon the continuous development of the disobedience struggle in workshop.
In March this year, Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education punished sisters Nezu and Kawarai both of whose struggled was filmed in a movie "Refusing to stand up for Kimigayo" suspension for three six months and three months respectively. Six month suspension is unprecedented cruel disciplinary measure that means another refusal next year inevitably brings her discharge. The struggle of sisters Nezu and Kawarai at risk of their jobs symbolizes the conscience of teachers and the fighting soul of education workers, publicly denouncing atrocity and unlawfulness of the Metropolitan Board of Education and urging all education workers to stand up for disobedience and resistance. We are convinced that fighting education workers across the country and all over the world will support them in preventing their dismissal.
(5) Education workers refusing to cooperate in war
It is necessary for Japan to be a "war-waging state" to step up military forces and change the government’s interpretation of Article 9 of the Constitution that forbids war and military potentials. But it is not enough. What is essential for this goal is to bring about a fundamental change of the mindset of Japanese people, a change into readiness to accept and support war and offer their lives to thee country.
We see in the attempt of enforcing Hinomaru and Kimigayo a dangerous drive of instilling patriotism into young people and to mobilize them into aggressive war with teachers as spearhead. Hinomaru and Kimigayo ritual is used as touchstone to test teachers if they obey the administrative orders and instructions that are means of controlling school and education as tools of the state power.
The significance of the struggle against Hinomaru and Kimigayo enforcement goes far beyond the resistance for the defense of freedom of individual thought and conscience. It must be regarded as a vital struggle to refuse war-cooperation through unity of education workers.
2. Abe’s appearance on the political stage and all-out drive for the constitutional revision
(1) Abe administration rushes for the revision of the Constitution and war
Abe is an ultra-right nationalist politician who has come to power with an official political vow of the constitutional revision for the first time in the postwar era.
His appearance on the Japanese political scene marks a historical turning point with his slogan of "overcoming of the postwar regime", just comparable with the taking power of the Nazis who claimed to "break with the Versailles system".
Abe administration placed as cabinet staff numerous members of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, which is a group of historical revisionist who finds every root of evil in the historical viewpoint influenced by the Far Eastern Tribunal of War Crimes. His predecessor, KOIZUMI Junichiro, forced repeated visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, in the midst of the mounting criticism in and outside of Japan against the governmental policy on the Yasukuni Shrine (worshipping of the war dead including the war criminals). Abe followed his example and presented offering to the shrine. Even though the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951 had confirmed outrageous impunity of the Emperor and helped Japanese rulers, Abe has been challenging even such treaty. Worship of Yasukuni means an insolent breach of Article 11 of the treaty: "Japan accepts the judgments of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and of other Allied War Crimes Courts…"
The Constitution of Japan is an exceptional basic law among the imperialist (capitalist) countries with its Article 9 that stipulates renunciation of the possession of war potentials and denial of the right of belligerency. Though Japan has stepped up its "defense forces" to the third rank in the world, Japan’s military development overseas is still under the constitutional restriction.
With an aim of making a step forward for the revision of the constitution, Abe administration forcibly legislated the National Referendum Bill that offers favorable conditions for the advocates of the constitutional revision and deprives public sector workers and teachers (in public and private schools) of the right of speech in regard to the constitution. This legislation enables the proposition of the revision of the constitution in three years. However, Abe doesn’t wait to launch a series of war policy until the revision of the constitution is completed. The former Defense Agency has recently been upgraded to the Defense Department. In au-
tumn, the restrictions on overseas development of the De-
fense Forces is going to be lifted through altering the tradi-
tional governmental interpretation of the right to collective defense, thus enabling back-up to the US warships on the high sea battle, shooting the missile shot at the target in the US or providing logistic support to the US forces in war.
Abe administration currently intends to expand the active area of the Japan-US Security System to the whole world. A new military base is going to be built in Henoko in Nago city, thus making Okinawa "an island of base" forever. The government is intent to pay 725.8 billion yen ($ 6 billion) for the transfer of the US base from Okinawa to Guam and to help realignment of US bases in Asia and the Pacific area. While many "coalition of willing" countries have retreated from Iraq, Japanese government is willing to continue sup-
port of US operations in Iraq through extending the time limit of the Special Measure Law for Iraq. I belong to the Miura Peninsula Area Teachers Union, an affiliate of the Federation of Teachers’ Unions in Kanagawa prefecture. Kanagawa is the prefecture with the largest number of US bases in Japan only next to Okinawa. We are confronted with a rapid step up of the functions of the US bases as a part of the realignment of US bases. Yokosuka in the Miura Peninsula is a town of the US naval base with its headquar-
ters and serves as forward deployment base of the Seventh Fleet. Yokosuka is the sole overseas homeport of the US air-
craft carrier. The whole Yokosuka city is now rising up against the deployment of the nuclear carrier, George Wash-
ington, scheduled in 2008. Bush and Abe are transforming Camp Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, into the joint US-Japan headquarters for a new war in Korean Peninsula, transfer-
ring the US Army’s 1st Corps Headquarters to Zama and creating of Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force Central Readiness Collective Headquarters there. Abe administra-
tion now prepares an aggressive war on Korean Peninsula, inflaming chauvinism against Korean people by means of the propaganda on the kid-napping issue. A systematic assault is organized by the state power on various Korean organizations in Japan, namely the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan and its related organizations, the Korean schools, etc. Repeated raids by the riot police on them tell us that we are on the eve of an aggressive war.
(2) Abe’s denial of coercion in recruiting "military comfort women" and textbook campaign
Abe is now exposed to severe criticism from within and outside the country for his repeated statement that disavow-
ed the responsibility of the Japanese military for the "mili-
tary comfort women" and denied the existence of proof of coercion in recruitment. A resolution demanding Japenese government’s official apology for the use of military sex slaves is to be put to a full vote in mid-July.
As a chief secretary of the "Association of the Junior MP to discuss the future of Japan and review the education on history", Abe has long assaulted the history textbooks that wrote about the "military comfort women," Nanking massacre and coercion of collective suicides in Okinawa by Japanese army. Many posts of the Abe cabinet are occupied by the members of this association.
All the history textbooks of junior high school, edited in 1997, wrote about "military comfort women". In the 2006 edition, however, description on this theme completely disappeared, except one textbook that referred to it as related problem.
The reactionary force rallying around the "Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform" was not satisfied with attacking the textbooks on this issue. They published themselves a textbook that openly praised the aggressive wars of Japan (by a publisher named Husosha) and made an attempt of forcing its adoption in public schools with the help of certain politicians. It was Abe who was at that moment chief secretary of the Liberal Democratic Party that acted as major promoter of this scheme. In 2001, this attempt failed almost totally, but in 2005, they succeeded in bringing their history textbook in a part of Tokyo public junior high schools (in Suginami ward) and the special junior high schools combined with high schools, in which the Metropolitan Board of Education has a right to make decision on the choice of textbooks.
3. Reactionary revision of the Fundamental Law on Education and a campaign for "education rebuilding"
A top priority is given to "education rebuilding" in the political program of Abe administration. Abe admires the education before 1945 and totally deny the postwar education. This ideal is expressed by the nomination, "education rebuilding" instead of "education reform" as was advocated by his predecessors.
(1) Reactionary revision of the Fundamental Law on Education
On December 15 last year Abe government, a coalition government of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komei Party, forced to pass the revised Fundamental Law on Education in the parliament.
The Fundamental Law on Education, originally legislated in 1947 to constitute an entity together with the Constitution, occupies a cardinal position among numerous laws on education in setting a standard of juridical interpretation and implementation.
Before the end of WWII, education in Japan was subordinated to a national goal of nourishing obedient subjects who did not hesitate to offer their lives to the Emperor as was dictated by the "Imperial Rescript on Edu-
cation", which had absolute value. In contrast, the Funda-
mental Law on Education set the goal of public education as to "bring up the people who love truth and peace", declaring "full development of personality" as an objective of educa-
tion, not building up of human materials for the state. Another characteristic of the Fundamental Law on Educa-
tion is the prohibition of the administrative intervention into public education in regard to its contents and method, as "improper control", restricting the commission of educational administration to provision of the educational environment. It was based on the re-examination of the prewar and wartime experiences, which revealed us the rigid state control resulted in militarist education.
In reality, however, we have witnessed the state power has never respected the stipulations of the Fundamental Law on Education or guaranteed the freedom of education for teachers. The ruling power has consistently neglected the provisions of the Education Law and has attempted to control contents of education.
For education workers, however, the law offered a powerful weapon to fight against political repression and disciplinary measures in their struggle. In 1961, education workers waged strike and organized picket to prevent nationwide achievement test, which was forced by the Ministry of Education. The case was brought to the court and in many cases the court ruled that the nationwide achievement test should be regarded as "improper control" of education and therefore illegal. It demonstrates that the Fundamental Law on Education has been acting to a certain degree as a brake on the administrative attempt of controlling education, just as Article 9 of the Constitution on military deployment.
The Fundamental Law on Education, however, has undergone a sweeping change in its character by the reactionary revision last year. On June 20, the parliament railroaded revision of other four educational laws to put into practice the revised stipulations of the Fundamental Law on Education. Then what is going to happen?
(2) Enforcement of patriotism and war-oriented education
First of all, education workers will confront enforcement of patriotic and war-oriented education.
Patriotism-inspiring education items will be introduced not only in history textbooks but also in textbooks in every field. Moreover, moral education (character education) could overwhelmingly sway education as a whole.
Teachers must obligatorily use certain textbooks and they are punished under the laws when they refuse it. In Tokyo, teachers must beforehand present supplementary education materials, such as handouts and videos to the superintendents for inspection. Superintendents very often observe teachers giving lessons in classrooms.
Teachers are going to be bound hand and foot by directives and instructions. Patriotic and war-praising education is going to be imposed upon teachers as 24 hour’s obligation for 365 day.
(3) Breaking with the principle of equal opportunity and realignment of education into naked class education
Another pillar of the education rebuilding policy of Abe administration is to establish a new control system of education based on the concept of neo-liberalism, that is, realignment of public education through introduction of market and competition principle.
Nationwide achievement test was conducted in April this year after an interval of 45 years. It will inevitably intensify competition among schools and hasten rating of schools.
In Japan, public primary schools and junior high schools are put under the school district system and children must visit the designated school in a certain school district according to where they live. Recently, however, a school choice system has been introduced and expanded to permit parents to choose schools they prefer. The financial circles are demanding to allocate education budget to schools according to the results of the nationwide achievement test, parents’ preference of school and the recruited number of students of respective schools (three check points).
In Adachi-ward in Tokyo where the school-choice system has been introduced for 10 years, differentiation between elite schools with high-grade students and other ordinary schools with students of low-income and/or single mother families are drastically developing. The administration intends to allocate school budget according to the results of the achievement test of respective schools. It will evidently worsen the conditions of those schools with students from low-income families.
Education reform for whom?
During these ten years, revision of the labor legislation has been carried on in order to lift regulations on temporary workers and contract workers in line with privatization of the public industries and services. It has brought about a drastic impoverishment of working class and a mass descent of young workers into "working poor" in Japanese society.
The aim of education reform of Abe administration is to establish a education system, in which priority in budget is given to build up a few elite who will contribute to strengthening of international competitiveness and economize the expenditure for the majority of school children who are destined to be engaged in routine works and therefore only need to be instilled with patriotism and subordination to the established moral standard.
Ex-chair of the council to discuss national curriculum openly spoke: "Let incompetent students as they are. We have put too many resources not to leave anybody behind in the past 50 years after WW II. Now it’s high time to divert the precious resources to competent students and students to build them higher up. One out of hundred is enough for us to expect to be an excellent leader of this country. Those who are helplessly incapable must at least develop honest mindset." The repercussion was vigorous.
It is nothing but an education reform to defend the interest of capitalist class.
(4) The primary aim of Abe is to disband the Japan Teachers Union
Abe administration is forcing a policy of increasing numbers of middle manager to support principals, of introducing pay raise system according to the performance evaluation in line with pay cut of ordinary teachers and of destabilizing of the status of teachers by means of the teachers’ license renewal system and the system to deal with ‘incompetent’ teachers.
The license renewal system limits the term of teachers’ license to 10 years and forces teachers to sit for written exam and field test after the expiration of the license term. Only those teachers who passed the exam and test would be permitted to renew the license. The system to deal with ‘incompetent’ teachers deprive those teachers who are judged as incompetent of their job and license after one year’s training that brought no improvement.
Training for the renewal of license may begin with enforcement of Kimigayo and Hinomaru ritual or an oath to the revised Fundamental Law on Education. There are possibilities for teachers to be regarded as "inadequate" or "incompetent" teachers if they refuse enforcement of Kimigayo and Hinomaru in school ceremonies or give lessons to tell student war crimes of Japan as the revised education law stipulates as priority of education nourishing of "mindset to love the nation".
The objectives of increasing numbers of middle managers and introducing pay raise system according to the performance evaluation is to destroy unity of education workers in the workplace, that confront the education reform policy of Abe administration. Even the education boards municipal governments targeted to shut out possible influence of teachers’ unions. The state intends to step up means of direct intervention through directives and inspection.
The primary intention of the revision of four education-related laws is to destroy the JTU.
4. For the rebirth of fighting JTU
(1) A short history of JTU
"Never send our students to the battlefields again" and "Teachers are workers"
JTU was founded in 1947 in the midst of the period of postwar revolution. It was the first time for Japanese teachers to organize their own labor movement as education workers rallying around the JTU, while before the end of WW II organized labor of teachers was bitterly suppressed before it started to develop.
The major slogan that represents JTU’s political platform since the outbreak of the Korean War till today is: "Never send our students to the battlefields again"
Teachers before the end of the war taught their students that Japanese aggressive war was a "Sacred War". They assumed the role of recruiting soldiers to the army and the navy, organized a plantation mission in "Manchuria and Mongolia" and provided military factories with labor service mission of students, thus degenerating into "dispatchers of death". The painful experience of wartime and keen sense of responsibility constituted a basic stand of Japanese teachers to start their fresh struggle after the war.
Another essential stand of the JTU is: "Teachers are workers" and "Teachers must unite". The Ethical Program of the JTU, which has long been ignored and forgotten by the executives of the union, describes it as follows:
"Teachers are workers and their workplace is classroom. Teachers fully realize that labor constitutes the fundament of the whole society and therefore they are proud of being workers. Teachers’ ideal is to live for the historical progress of human beings in full consciousness of their social position as workers.
"Only through unity, the historical task of teachers would be accomplished. Teachers establish international unity with teachers all over the world by developing organized labor movement of education workers, thus finally achieve unity with all workers of the whole world."
Japanese teachers before the end of WW II were supposed to be engaged in the "Holy calling in service of the Emperor." They were totally deprived of their labor rights and the civil liberty and had even any professional freedom. The lack of class-consciousness was the major cause that they sent their students to the battlefields of aggressive wars. The political slogan of the JTU expresses the class stand of teachers to develop struggle as a member of the working class to create a history for a new society. It is obtained through a sincere review of the bitter experience of the war.
The struggle against the performance evaluation has transformed the JTU into a fighting labor union
Let me tell you one of our struggles that we are proud of and well known in Japan.
The JTU fought from 1956 to 1959 a great struggle against the performance evaluation. It was the major struggle the JTU ever fought and forged the JTU up into a genuine labor union. Teachers belonging to the JTU were believed to have gone through self-revolution and developed themselves from teachers to education workers. The government intended to introduce a system of differential pay raise through practicing performance evaluation of teachers. The JTU confronted this offensive as an attempt to destroy the JTU and to establish governmental control of public education. A slogan was hammered out: "Performance evaluation is a first step for a war". With Tokyo teachers’ union at the head, a nationwide strike was carried out. 440 thousand teachers participated in defiance of fierce repression that forced 70 teachers dismissed, 42 prosecuted and 68,000 disciplined. Teachers were caught in the crossfire of political repression and they never stopped fighting. The whole Japanese working class recognized that the cause of the fighting teachers of the JTU was their own and labor unions of various industries and people of discriminated social layers joined to support them. Thus the JTU’s struggle against the performance evaluation became an original engine of the great struggle against the Japan-US Security Treaty in 1960.
(2) Deterioration and setback of the JTU movement.
After decades, the teachers’ movement led by the JTU changed its class character.
Division and privatization of the National Railways started from the early 1980’s and replacement of the Sohyo (General Council of Trade Unions of Japan, the then main national trade union center) in 1989 by the new national trade union center, Rengo (Japanese Trade Union Confederation), that advocates labor-capital collaboration have decisively precipitated the transfiguration of the JTU, which affiliated to the Rengo. The JTU made a decisive diversion by adopting the union line of the "Partnership with the Ministry of Education" in the 1995 convention. The union leadership of the JTU has given away its traditional confrontation to the government’s education policy of promoting nationalism and merit system and abandoned any opposition against the "education reform" of the Ministry of Education. No strike or nationwide united action has been organized. What is required of the union members is to vote for the union-supported candidates of the Democratic Party that competes with the Liberal Democratic Party in pushing the policy of constitutional revision and structural reform.
The executives of the JTU outrageously pledged to the Ministry of Education to abandon major workplace initiatives and struggles ("5 points reconciliation") such as movement of organizing independent curriculum, campaign for a decision-making meeting of teachers, opposition against the introduction of administrative chief system to disrupt teachers’ workplace unity, struggle against administrative training of teachers, struggle against enforcement of Kimigayo and Hinomaru, etc.
As a result, teachers are driven into too busy schedule under tighter control and the number of early retiring teachers and mentally sick teachers are rapidly increasing. The union leadership has surrendered to a series of offensives to introduce a new system of performance evaluation and middle manager system with aim of eliminating all the achievements of the struggle against the performance evaluation and against the introduction of administrative chief. The JTU in these ten years has been almost dead.
(3) Rank and file movement to revive fighting JTU
The achievement of the struggle to refuse the Hinomaru and Kimigayo ritual
A new horizon has been opened up for the rebirth of the JTU by the struggle to refuse to stand up for Kimigayo in front of Hinomaru at school ceremonies, the struggle initiated by the Tokyo teachers in defiance of sever disciplinary measures and backed by independent solidarity actions of rank and file union members across the country. This struggle of disobedience encouraged JTU members in their determination to revive the fighting soul of the JTU expressed in the slogan, "Never send our students to the battlefields again" and to defend education for peace against every repression of the state power.
Actually, more than 1500 teachers were disciplined all over Japan for their opposition to the enforcement of Hinomaru and Kimigayo since the directives was issued in 1985 to practice Hinomaru and Kimigayo ceremony strictly observing the administrative instructions. We wonder if there is any other example of disobedience struggle that has been continued without any union order to mobilize or organizational support for the punished unionists.
The struggle against the revision of the Fundamental Law on Education last year has given another impetus to revive fighting JTU. It should be noted that the JTU executives took no initiative in organizing this struggle. The official policy of the JTU was only to suggest that union members restudy the Education Law and put it into practice, far from raising a voice against its reactionary revision, not to say organizing mass protest actions. During the parliamentary discussion on the education Law, the JTU officials only demanded a deliberate debate.
Still today no active policy is presented by the JTU leadership to fight against the National Referendum Law that prohibits political activities of public service workers and teachers to oppose the constitutional revision and against the revision of four education related laws. The executives of the JTU are apparently scared by the raging campaign of bashing public service workers and teachers and seemed to be waiting cowardly till the storm is over.
Persistent workplace struggle
We’d like to inform you of "the task of the workplace struggle" taking examples of our fellow unionists in the Miura Peninsula (Hinomaru and Kimigayo are already referred to and omitted here).
First point regards to a new alignment of school administration system (a project meeting) and introduction of a new job (teacher for general school administration)
In the annual union convention last year we proposed an amendment to the resolution, based on the decision of our union branch that insisted struggle for democratic workplace without a project meeting or teachers for general school administration as was planned by the administration. The amendment was carried by an overwhelming majority in the convention. In spite of this, the JTU leadership has not yet presented a practical policy. Unsatisfied and impatient with the inactivity of the union leadership, a union member, who had been obliged to work as general school manager, declared in March to step down on his own from his position for the coming year. In many workplaces, struggles have been continued to fight back administrative attempts of bringing discrimination and division among teachers and to defend democracy in schools in order to strengthen unity of the union members.
Our current major task is to confront "the introduction of the personal rating system and the pay raise system on the performance evaluation". Many rank and file union members regard it as a scheme of reforming the system of public service workers, that is, union busting on the public service workers movement and have a central position in destroying unity of workplace. The leadership of the JTU, however, agreed to accept it without organizing mass protest, saying "there is no other choice than to expect progress, while the seats are occupied by the conservative forces " or " It’ the only way to maintain pay standard."
In the May annual convention we proposed an amendment demanding "absolute opposition" to the introduction of new system and the convention adopted a policy of "fighting to abolish and withdraw" the administrative plan. We are faced now in a decisive moment of the struggle to fight back the governmental offensive to differentiate and divide education workers with united force of workplace. There are a few fellow unionist who are refusing to present a document of declaration on his or her job, but their struggles are currently isolated and far from being a general policy of movement.
It is also important to mention that a lot of teachers are now working almost daily overtime in a terrible way. Even the investigation of the Ministry of Education admits that overtime work has become an every day incident for teachers. Number of death from overwork and mental diseases are rapidly increasing among teachers. Schools are now "labor camps". The policy of the JTU leadership is to find a way in demanding administrative reform of the system. Our policy is, however, to build up unity in the workplace and rise up to defend our own rights through our own action.
To conclude this section, let me tell you another activity of ours. We of Miura Peninsula local has begun a effort of raising candidates for the union leadership (four executive positions) since three years ago in order to get back a fighting union in our hands. There is a Japanese popular proverb: "Fish spoils from the head". For the development of unity in workplace, we absolutely need a fighting union leadership instead of spoiled one. It is imperative for us to regain dominant power in workplaces through building up unity of rank and file members. Thus education workers will be able to give lively lessons in classroom.
(4) Fight back against war and privatization, developing international unity of workers!
We must develop our struggle in workplace to an organized effort of reviving labor movement as a whole.
While most of the labor unions in Japan have suffered a serious setback and have degenerated into a conformist labor movement within the ruling system, one labor union has been waging a principled struggle sticking to the cause of working class: its names is Doro-Chiba (National Railway Motive Power Union of Chiba).
In 1980’s the Nakasone administration launched an all-out offensive of union busting, privatization and de-regularization in line with the neo-liberalist attack by Thatcher and Reagan on working class. As its core issue, a rush of Division and Privatization of National Railway raged over railway workers’ unions. Major union concerned, namely National Railway Workers’ Union (NRU), totally abandoned to fight back and tried to find a political solution in vain. Japan Teachers Union that occupied also a central position in the Sohyo (the national trade union center), refused to take a stand to fight in solidarity with the NRU.
As a result of the retreat, the membership of the NRU was reduced from 240 thousand to 40 thousand in a few years and the Sohyo dissolved itself. The Rengo was founded instead by the right wing initiative, absorbing JTU and Jichiro (All Japan Prefectural and Municipal Workers' Union). This move finalized the setback of the JTU leadership. Doro-Chiba alone resolutely confronted the Division and Privatization of National Railway through waging two waves of strikes in defiance of retaliatory discharge of unionists and succeeded in preserving unity to develop unflinching struggle up till today.
Annually, Doro-Chiba has been calling for "building of a nationwide network of fighting labor unions" together with Kan-Nama (Solidarity Union Of Japan Construction And Transport Workers Kansai Area Branch) that organizes drivers of concrete mixers and Minato-Godo (Metal and Machinery Workers' Union in Osaka) that is composed of workers of small and medium enterprises. Annual Novem-
ber Workers’ Rally has been held for this purpose with the participation of the US labor unions, such as ILWU locals 10 and 34, AMFA and Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Seoul Regional Council. This rally has a decisive significance.
In the November Rally, education workers who are fighting against the enforcement of Hinomaru and Kimigayo including disciplined teachers are joining in a large number. They are keenly aware that development of the struggle of disobedience to war-commitment in every industrial union branches would surely prevent the drive to the constitutional revision and war.
Imperialist powers headed by the US are now desperately engaged in plundering market and resources by military forces. They are competing each other in forcing privatiza-
tion to step up competitiveness and in exploiting working class in a cruel way. It is evident that administrative assault on education and education workers all over the world con-
stitutes a part of all-out capitalist offensive of war and pri-
vatization on working class. It would pave way for destruc-
tion of human race through the world war for the third time.
Unity of the working class of the whole world alone can prevent the catastrophe. No doubt international solidarity of education workers of Japan, the US and Korea will exhibit a decisive power to stop the Iraq war and planned war on Korea. This has a far-reaching implication on the struggle for working class to be a master of the society and to build up a society without war or exploitation, in which children can freely develop themselves.
Let’s fight together for our common cause!

around the United States,
Good afternoon. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to come over here and speak to you. I am SATO Etsuko from Yokosuka, a town of US naval base in Japan.
A public junior high school is my workplace. We are constantly suffering under extreme overwork far beyond our capacity in and out of classroom. Nevertheless, I came here, crossing the Pacific, because I have been informed that you, American education workers, face the same problem as ours: we share in Japan and US many difficulties and pressures, and brutal political repressions that assault on resisting and fighting workers.
My fellow workers and I were punished for our struggle against the enforcement of Hinomaru and Kimigayo—Japanese national flag and anthem in school ceremonies. Although over 1,500 education workers have been disciplined in these years across the country, a large number of our fellow teachers are continuing to fight in defiance of massive disciplinary measures.
Hinomaru was and is used, exactly like Nazi’s Hakenkreuz and the Confederate flag, to approve and incite hate, holocaust and slavery. By raising Hinomaru, Japanese rulers overtly show their intention: resumption of aggressive wars and massacres in Asia under the tyranny of Emperor system. For this same reason, Abe and his cabinet have repeatedly rejected to admit coercion in recruiting "military comfort women"—sex slaves—and they forced by school text book screening to delete descriptions on this historical fact. A literal and full translation of words of Kimigayo is: "May The Emperor's reign continue for a thousand, eight thousand generations, until the pebbles grow into boulders lush with moss." Many education workers are against Hinomaru and Kimigayo because they well realize bitter experiences of their own families in the war. The Japan Teachers Union (JTU) was formed immediately after WW II and its fundamental slogan has been "Never Send Our Students to the Battlefields Again!" JTU’s long history of struggles against war has been sustained by this slogan, which encourages disobedience to Hinomaru and Kimigayo among education workers.
The present stand of the executives of the JTU, however, disowns its militant history of organizing nationwide struggle against the introduction of a performance evaluation system and against national achievement test. The leadership of the JTU do not move a bit to protest successive and massive disciplinary measure on its own union members for disobedience to Hinomaru and Kimigayo. The most outrageous case is that the JTU executives ignore the hardship of Sister Nezu who has been struggling against six-month suspension by the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education and is going to be fired next spring when she refuses to stand up once more.
I am here to ask you, fellow US teachers, for your support to and cooperation with our struggle to crush governmental intention of violating the constitutional freedom of speech and thought and of controlling education workers at their will. Please help us in our effort of demanding withdrawal of the unjust punishment on fighting Japanese teachers.
I heard that the No Child Left Behind Act is up for reauthorization by Congress this year. The NCLB provides for testing and evaluating of teachers in order to exclude "incompetent" teachers, standardized testing of students, distri-
bution of personal information of every student enrolled to the military. So the military can hang around and recruit students using such information. What a similarity to our case in Japan! In our Parliament, after the reactionary revi-
sion of the Fundamental Law on Education last year, four laws concerning education were revised on June 20. These laws introduce "teachers’ license renewal system" which limits the term of license to 10 years and drives out "incompetent" teachers; nationwide achievement test that accelerates competition and the test results being contracted out to a private company and accessible by everyone. Abe wants to widen the gap of education. He intends to instill obedient spirit into the children of the poor families. His aim is to make them canon fodders. Does it mean that Abe, who officially admits he is following the US examples, once again imitates Bush administration in this issue?
Bush is transferring the US Army’s 1st Corps headquarters to Camp Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, and the nuclear carrier USS George Washington to the naval base in Yokosuka. He is trying to build a new helicopter base in Okinawa. Abe fully supports Bush’s policies and preparing a war in Korean Peninsula together with him. In order to enable these plans, both Japanese and US governments are intensifying attack on education workers.
We have been fighting against coercion of Hinomaru and Kimigayo under our traditional slogan: "Never send our students to the battlefields again!" You have been struggling to push recruiters out of schools. Our objectives are the same in Japan and US. If the ruling classes cooperate to oppress us, then we must unite and strengthen solidarity against them. I am firmly convinced that we shall surely stop the war by international solidarity.
I ask you to support our struggle for withdrawal of disciplinary measures on Hinomaru and Kimigayo refusal. Thank you very mush.
July 4, 2007
SATO Etsuko (Miura Peninsula Area Education Workers Union, an affiliate of Japan Teachers Union) (Education Workers Section, National Coordinating Center of Labor Unions)
Attachment: Brief History of Struggle Against Hinomaru and Kimigayo
About SATO Etsuko
Sato Etsuko belongs to Miura Peninsula District Teachers Union (MTU), an affiliate of Japan Teachers Union (JTU), and teaches English at a public junior high school in Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture.
She has been participating in rank and file movement within JTU and fighting a strenuous battle against Hinomaru ("Rising Sun Flag") and Kimigayo (Song of "His Majesty’s Reign").
Refusal to stand up facing Kimigayo is not only for defense of "freedom of thought/speech" but also for refusal of collaboration with war efforts and for continuation of the historical struggles of Japanese education workers who pledged after World War II: "Do Not Send Our Students Again to Battlefields!"

biography
1948 born in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture
1967 entered Tokyo University of Education
SATO Etsuko was influenced by Professor Saburo Ienaga’s lawsuit against the censorship and distortion of historical facts in history textbooks by the Japanese Government; the struggle against relocation of the University from Tokyo to Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture; and the struggle against airport construction in Narita.
1972 became a clerical staff of a public junior high school in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture
1975 retired from the junior high school
1976 to 1977 worked as a substitute teacher at a public primary school in Niigata City, Niigata Prefecture
From 1979 until now English teacher at junior high schools in Yokosuka City

1999 Flag-and-Anthem Law was legislated. Hinomaru and Kimigayo officially became Japanese national flag and anthem.

2003 punished for the first time for her refusal to stand up
2003 Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education issued "Directive of October 23", which provided instructions including requirements that all teachers rise from their seats, face Hinomaru and sing Kimigayo.
2004 Many teachers of high schools under Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education refused stand up. The Board issued massive punishment. The struggle continues. (In 2007, the Board issued heavy disciplinary measures including six month suspension for one teacher and three month suspension for another.)
2006 Fundamental Law on Education was changed for the worse.
2007 punished for the second time for her refusal to stand up

Metropolitan Board of Education
Stop Ms Nezu’s Dismissal and Ms Kawarai’s Punishment!
This spring, the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education took disciplinary action against Ms NEZU Kimiko and Ms KAWARAI Junko who refused to stand up and to sing Kimigayo (His Majesty’s Reign)—six-month suspension and three-month respectively. However, they determined to repeat their refusal at next graduation ceremonies. After long and careful consideration on the coercion of Hinomaru (Rising Sun flag) and Kimigayo, which deprive their students of right to know and right to self-determination; instill a single, uniform value; and teach the students to obey any orders and instructions, they realized that they can not and must not follow the order to stand up and sing Kimigayo.
The Metropolitan Board of Education stated that the maximum suspension was six months; next spring, Ms Nezu might be fired.
Therefore, we, undersigned, urge the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education:
Not to instruct the relevant principals to issue any and no work order, including " stand up and sing" order, concerning the school ceremonies, and
To follow the ruling of the Tokyo District Court of September 21, 2006 and to stop dismissal or any other punishment against education workers.

Signature Name (block capitals please) Address (block capitals please) School (block capitals please)







Committee for Stop Firing of Nezu, Kwarai and Other Teachers Contact Address: Tama and Islands Area Education Workers Union (Tama Kyoso)
1-1-6 Kita, Kunitachi-City,