7,000 red cards tied up the Diet—‘Women's protest for peace’ forms a human chain

Hundreds of women wearing something red were brimming with anticipation in and out of the subway station near the Diet in the afternoon of Jan. 17. They were to attend the Women's Rally for Peace and form a human chain around the national Diet building.

 When I was heading for the speakers' corner in front of the Diet building, I came across a lot of acquaintances. While exchanging greetings I realized that only after the Fukushima disaster on March 11, 2011, did I come to know them from the protests against the government’s mishandling of the nuclear disaster at the Diet.

 I saw a woman in a red coat or another one wearing a red cap and a matching muffler, which her friend had knitted for her especially for this day, she said. We casually exchanged praises as if old friends, "The red color suits you so well!"

 Yet another woman with a very intricately appliqued banner was so proud of it for she made it herself during the Nakasone regime, the grand old man of the LDP in the 1980s.

 The speakers made brief but distinctive appeals, and time and again the Nagatacho area reverberated with 7,000 women chanting and raising red cards, which read, "Stop getting involved in other countries’ conflicts." or "Mr. Abe, you should be sent off immediately!"

 It was almost like a flare of women's rage that can never be extinguished.

By KASAHARA Mayumi, follow-up by OZAWA Kuniko;  Photo by NISHINAKA Seiichiro

  Photo&Report by Shinya;

 7000枚のレッドカードが国会を縛り上げた～「女の平和」ヒューマンチェーン

1 月17日、午後1時を少し過ぎていた。地下鉄の駅には、すでに赤を身につけて人々であふれている。正門前のアピールコーナーに急ぐあいだも、たくさんの知 人に会う。挨拶を交わしながら、そのほとんどの人が、原発事故の後に国会周辺で知り合った人なのに、我ながら驚く。しかも、知らない方たちも、仲間の一人 が、この日のために編んでくれたと赤い帽子やマフラーを身につけたり、赤いコートを羽織ったりの人たちに、互いに「あっ、その赤いいね」と旧知のように声 を掛け合ってしまった。手のこんだアップリケの横断幕を持つ女性は、30年前の中曽根の時代に作ったと誇らしげだ。2時を過ぎると、各人のアピールのあい だに、何回かのヒューマンチェーンのコールが永田町に響いた。それは、女性たちの怒りの炎、消すことのできない炎のようでもあった。（笠原眞弓） 続き・報告（尾澤邦子）・TBSニュース・東京新聞・写真報告（shinya）　＊写真＝西中誠一郎