Protesters Arrive in NY to Campaign Against Japanese War Shrine
Rally at Japanese Consulate and UN demands Removal of
Korean & Taiwanese Names from Infamous Yasukuni shrine
November 2, 2007 – Korea
Press contact: Juyeon Rhee, 917-656-0156

On Tuesday, November 6th, a delegation of Japanese, Koreans, Taiwanese and Okinawans will hold a press conference and rally in front of the Japanese Consulate at Park Ave. and 49th Street to protest the controversial Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo. They will then march with supporters to deliver a statement to U.N. General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon, demanding that the 21,000 Korean and 28,000 Taiwanese names now listed on the shrine as “Eirei” or “Japanese heroes”, be removed and replaced with the truth – that these 49,000 men were forcibly conscripted into Japan’s military during World War II – and needlessly murdered.

Events following this include the Anti-Yasukuni cartoon art exhibit opening at the Flushing Town Hall in Queens on Nov. 7th, and on Thursday, November 8th, an International Academic Symposium on the Yasukuni Controversy at Columbia University, which is open to the public. The delegation aims to raise the profile of the Anti-Yasukuni issue in the US, and to start an international campaign leading to a resolution by the U.N. Human Rights commission in Geneva.

The Yasukuni shrine has been controversial for almost 30 years, after it was revealed in 1979 that Class A war criminals were enshrined there. It has become a potent symbol for Japan’s right wing, who have established memorials and a museum there presenting a revisionist history of World War II in which Japan was not an aggressor, but simply “protecting its independence and the prosperity of Asia.” And despite international protests and condemnation, Japanese prime ministers and other high-ranking officials and politicians continue to worship and embrace the shrine.

For the rest of Asia, Okinawans and even many Japanese people, the shrine is a symbol of Japan’s World War II aggression and war crimes – and a worrisome symbol of the right wing’s hope to change Japan’s “Peace Constitution” – and rearm the country.

Last year, Rep. Henry Hyde of the House Committee on International Relations, wrote to Japan’s then Prime Minister Koizumi expressing his "concerns about the efficacy of an invitation to the Japanese prime minister who continues to make controversial visits to the Yasukuni shrine." Hyde's letter stated that a visit to the shrine was an offense to Americans and that he didn't want to "dishonor the site in Congress where President Franklin D. Roosevelt made his "day of infamy" speech after the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor."

The delegation is demanding that the 21,000 Koreans and 28,000 Taiwanese dead who are enshrined at the Yasukuni shrine – all forced conscripts to the Japanese military during the war - be removed from the shrine. The bereaved families have sued the Japanese government to remove their family members’s names from the shrine, as they had never consented to their inclusion on a memorial that honors war criminals. Korea and Taiwan were both occupied and colonized by Japan for decades till the end of World War II, and millions, mostly Korean, were forced laborers or forcibly conscripted into the Japanese military, with 200,000 women forced into sexual slavery. Japan has yet to fully acknowledge its responsibility for these enslavements and its war crimes, and numerous lawsuits remain pending.

The delegation is also demanding that the Yasukuni Shrine supporters stop using the shrine to justify and glorify Japan’s war crimes and aggression in Asia during the WWII, which is fueling Japan’s current move toward re-militarization. Both these demands will eventually be made to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

The delegation is coming to the United States because U.S. policy in Asia has allowed Japan to evade post-war responsibility to the people of its former colonies. The delegation, which is also holding events in Los Angeles and Washington DC, is being sponsored by the “Anti-Yasukuni Joint Counteraction – Korean, Taiwanese, Japanese and Okinawan Committees” based in Korea and Japan, with support from a network of Korean American organizations. Please see reverse side for a schedule of events.

Anti-Yasukuni Shrine Campaign Schedule in NY, November 2007

Tuesday, November 6th, 2007

12:00 – Press Conference “Anti-Yasukuni Shrine Campaign” Japanese Consulate, 299 Park Avenue at 49th Street

12:30 – 3:30 PM: March to U.N.
Ralph Bunche Park, 42nd Street and 1st Avenue/ Rally

Wednesday, November 7th, 2007

11 am Opening ceremony, Satirical Cartoon Exhibit Against Yasukuni Shrine
Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd.
Flushing, New York 11354
Tel (718) 463-7700
http://www.flushingtownhall.com

Thursday, November 8th, 2007

9 AM- 6 PM International Academic Symposium on the Yasukuni Controversy
Philosophy Hall, Room 301
Columbia University
1150 Amsterdam Avenue at 116th St.
Open to the public

For more information on the Anti-Yasukuni Shrine Campaign, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasukuni_Shrine

Corean Action Network for Unification, 53-22 Roosevelt Ave, Woodside, NY 11377