Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

PEACE KEEPING OPERATION (PKO) COOPERATION LAW • 203
sity and Makoto Oda, a popular left-wing novelist. When U.S. bombing
of North Vietnam began in February 1965, these three individuals decided
in April 1965 to organize Peace to Vietnam!, a coalition of citizen
cultural groups, with Makoto Oda serving as lead representative.
On 16 October 1966, the coalition changed its name to the Peace
to Vietnam! Citizens’ Coalition and began efforts to organize a larger
movement throughout all of Japan. This coalition developed a variety
of unique citizen protest actions, such as sponsoring monthly
demonstrations, hosting 24-hour teach-ins (in August 1965), publishing
an anti–Vietnam war advertisement in the New York Times (16
November 1965), holding a Japan–U.S. citizens’ conference to examine
American involvement in Vietnam (August 1966), providing
assistance to U.S. soldiers who did not wish to serve in Vietnam (beginning
in November 1968), establishing anti-war organizations that
operated underground on U.S. military bases in Japan, and publishing
Weekly AMPO (from November 1969 through June 1970).
The coalition defined itself as “not an organization but as a movement,”
insisting on the importance of “coalition through action.” The
coalition gradually increased its organizational ties with leftist Japanese
university and high school students. Working together, a largescale
anti-war demonstration of 70,000 people was organized in June
1969, which startled the Japanese government and helped to energize
progressive political forces throughout Japan. The signing of the
Treaty of Paris in 1973 between the U.S. and Vietnam led to the complete
evacuation of U.S. military forces from Vietnam. On 26 January
1974, the Peace to Vietnam! Citizens’ Coalition was dissolved.
PEACE KEEPING OPERATION (PKO) COOPERATION LAW.
The formal name of this law is “A Law Concerning Cooperation of
United Nations’ Peace Keeping Operation and Other Activities.” It
was enacted in June 1992, stipulating that Japanese Self-Defense
Forces may participate in UN-led peacekeeping operations as long as
the PKO five principles of participation are met: a cease-fire agreement
between the warring parties, agreement to the presence of
Japanese forces by the country to which they will be dispatched, adherence
to neutrality in any operations undertaken, discontinuance of
activities and retreat of work force and military units, and necessary
minimum use of small arms to protect the lives of the workforce.