If you have no time to see this video to
the end, please see the part from 2:00 at the very least.
Her speech is splendid.
Masatoshi
Takeshita
April
5, 2013
English translation of a video (speech in
Japanese) entitled “Why not 9?” (Mika Tsutsumi)
Original video: You Tube – November 14, 2007 –
(Note)
[Underlined parts] – Japanese subtitle
Normal 0 10 pt 0 2 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE $([{£¥‘“〈《「『【〔＄（［｛｢￡￥ !%),.:;?]}¢°’”‰′″℃、。々〉》」』】〕゛゜ゝゞ・ヽヾ！％），．：；？］｝｡｣､･ﾞﾟ￠
[Ms. Mika Tsutsumi, a writer and
journalist]
War is a kind of game for the young
generation in America. War is a game; a
game seen in movies or videos. However,
American returning soldiers from Iraq, who actually went to battle and were forced
to murder people, say: “It was wrong. When
we kill one person, the game is over and our life is also over. But our generation didn’t know about it
because we had lived in a peaceful country.”
[Ms. Mika Tsutsumi says that to protect
the Article 9 of the Constitution, first of all, the Article 25 (Right to Live)
has to be guaranteed.] 0:23-0:29
[Ms. Mika Tsutsumi encountered the 9/11
terrorist attacks while at work. She is
the author of “Hope Ground Zero Gave Me.”
She received the Kiyoshi Kuroda Rookie Award from the Japan Journalist
Conference for her book “Revolution of the Weak in America Never Told by News Report”
published in 2006. She serves as
assistant newscaster of “Deeper Layer of News.” ] 0:32-0:50
The Article 9 always evokes an image of war
and peace. For people who are living in an
era of peace, including the old me, war seems to be something that is happening
on the other side of the ocean and it does not ring a bell. The article 25 guarantees we can live an
ordinary life and live like humans. To
protect the article will eventually lead to realizing a world with no war.
[Article 25: (Right to Live) All people shall
have the right to maintain the minimum standards of wholesome and cultured
living.] 1:05-1:13
Take for example, today’s young people. When I talk to them, life in a peaceful
country is not of primary interest for them and they worry that they cannot
live an ordinary life, they might be working poor, or they cannot get a pension. Some girls say, “I can’t get married.” Their greatest concern is about whether they
can survive; their right to live is in danger.
They are more concerned about their right to live than the Article
9. While gathering information in the
U.S., I’ve found that if you don’t want your children to go to battle,
protection of the Article 9 is not sufficient.
The Article 9 is a law and a last resort to make historical ends meet. Around when Article 9 is revised, children of
Net cafe refugees or the working poor will have already been sent off to war in
exchange for the right to live. This is
going on in the U.S. As they are sent
off as temporary workers, they are not reported in the media. (Sent off by corporations as a member?) The Iraq war is a privatized war. Well, Japan is following suit. In America, speaking more specifically, social
welfare spending has been reduced since the 9/11 and the middle class people
have become poor all at once; the working poor and people deeply in debt have
significantly increased. What do they
do? They are recruited by private
temporary manpower companies to go to battle in exchange for the right to
live. They ］
[They have created the extremely poor in
the country. This forces even anti-war
protesters to go to battle for a living.] 2:31-2:40
[Privatized war] 2:41-2:45
They have created the extremely poor in the
country. This forces even anti-war
protesters to go to battle for a living.
This war is a privatized war.
Therefore, the young generation feels the right to live is more
threatened. It is important to put a brake
against expansion of the gap between the rich and the poor and not to have the
government monopolize information, that is, not to have information centralized
in the government.
[Message from American returnees from
Iraq to Japanese] 2:55-3:02
I’ve got a message from American returnees. We tend to specify our enemies. We tend to do so because we are human
beings. Soldiers who were in Iraq say, “When
we were in Iraq, we thought that our enemies were the government, big companies
such as Halliburton and the mass media, which manipulate information. But when we came back to America, we found
that it was wrong.” They say, “The enemy
is not the government, big companies, or the mass media but our, the people’s
indifference, ignorance and feeling of giving up.”
Please never mistake the enemy we fight
with. Please fight with feeling of
giving up and indifference we have within and let’s hold hands with them across
the ocean. If we do so, we can
definitely choose our future. I hope we
will be able to choose our future.
[We can choose our future.] 3:48-3:54
[An International Conference sponsored
by the Article 9 Society is scheduled to be held in Makuhari Messe on May 4 and
5, 2008. There is a plan to hold related
events in Sendai, Osaka and Hiroshima.
Japan Executive Committee, “International
Conference sponsored by Article 9 Society”]
3:55-4:01
Leave a Reply