Protest Appeal
We protest against the deployment of PAC3 into the City of Kurume, and urge citizens of the city to stand up for eliminating the dangerous space war machine.
Kyushu Network for Anti-PAC3 and Pro-Article 9 Movements (PNet)
24 February, 2010
Today, on Feb. 24th, PAC3 was secretly deployed to Kouradai in the City of Kurume. This was the very day when we, PNet, were supposed to have answers from the city authorities to our questions, after they had postponed it. They told us, on the very day of the deployment, that they would not edisclose the date of deployment.f This notification has become their actual refusal to answer our questions.
PAC3 deployment into Kouradai is part of the space militarization once called eStar Warsf, which inevitably would doom the city to one of its established positions. For the City of Kurume to allow this deployment goes against eThe Declaration for Peace and the Abolition of Nuclear Weaponsf the city itself adopted.
We are very disappointed at the content of the reply, almost business-like, having no reference to the issues we have questioned, as if to say that the city will not meddle in what the central government does, being in obedient compliance with its direction. This attitude tells us that the Mayor has almost abandoned his duty as head of this municipality.
From the reply by Mayor, we cannot see at all whether or not he has considered several messages sent to him from inside and outside Japan, including Prof. Toshihide Maskawa, the Nobel Prize Laureate in physics, Mr. Bruce Gagnon, a peace activist in the USA, Sung-Hee Choi and Wooksik Cheong, peace activists in South Korea.
As in the messages sent by Korean activists, military buildup can never be progressed without enhancing regional tension. Additionally, this is the MD system with the overwhelming attack capability operated jointly by the US forces and JSDFs, with the latter likely to have the unconstitutional ewar potentialf to attack its opponentfs soil. Therefore, it is easy to imagine our neighboring countries may feel threatened.
Now, it is our turn, as citizens of Kurume, Fukuoka, to be asked on war and peace with a familiar question whether we should accept this deployment, thinking PAC3 could intercept a missile conveniently coming into its range or we should envision the regional peace by attaching importance to the process of the detente in East Asia and trust-building in the region. This is not only a regional matter but also a question of gravity, transcending the localism, demanding imagination on our part. Letfs unite the wisdom and action of every one of us, as a resident in this city, one in this prefecture.