August 15 Anti-Yasukuni Action: Never give up! Keep fighting on!

The annual "anti-Yasukuni" rally and march organized by nine citizens'organizations took place in central Tokyo on August 15. The venue of the rally was overcrowded with some 250 people. "The number of participants this year is the largest in recent years. It apparently reflects the sense of crisis that people feel with the current Abe administration," said organizers. Rally participants repeatedly confirmed that they would never get resigned nor discouraged and keep doing whatever they can to block the constitutional revision planned by the Abe administration. The march to Yasukuni Shrine started later in the afternoon faced with harder-than-usual obstruction by right-wingers. They shouted at the demonstrators "Get out of Japan if you don't love the country!" and various other abusive phrases and tried to attack the marchers. Many times they managed to go through the row of fully geared riot police guarding the marchers and break into the parade. Eventually they even took away the march banner. Demonstrators however made it to the shrine in about an hour, chanting "No! to Yasukuni" and "No! to PM Abe's constitutional revision" all the way. Though drenched in sweat, they were in good spirit.(By M)

Photos  YouTube Video (8 min. No subtitles)

あきらめず めげずに頑張ろう！～8.15反「靖国」行動に250人

8月15日、ことしも反「靖国」行動が9団体の呼びかけで東京・全水道会館で開催された。

会場は超満員で約250人。主催者は「最近では一番多い。安倍政権への危機感のあらわれ」と見ている。集会で強調されたのは、「安倍改憲政権のもとでもあきらめず、めげずに頑張ろう」ということだった。午後4時半から靖国神社に向けてデモが始まった。右翼の妨害も例年以上の激しさで、「日本がいやなら出て行け！」と口汚い言葉と怒号がデモに浴びせかけられた。完全武装の機動隊がデモをサンドイッチしているが、右翼が何度も殴り込み、隊列がしばしば崩れる。横断幕も奪われてしまった。しかし参加者は最後まで「靖国いらない」「安倍改憲反対」とアピールを続けた。妨害をはねかえし、1時間余の汗だくだくのデモを貫徹した参加者の顔はすがすがしかった。（M） 写真速報・デモ動画（YouTube 8分）