Remark by a former SDF member overwhelms 10,000 people at All-Saitama antiwar action

An “all-Saitama” protest movement was held on a hot summer-like day on May 31 at a park in Urawa district of Saitama City, calling for the revocation of the Abe cabinet decision to allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense. Just as some 30,000 people in Yokohama and another 35,000 in Okinawa gathered and raised their voices of protest, people in Saitama gathered to express their opposition to the war.  During the action, 12,000 flyers went very quickly. The all-Saitama antiwar action became filled with heated atmosphere, which was hotter than outside temperature. 

The speech by a former Self-Defense Force member, DORO Norikazu, was simply overwhelming. “When I was a member of SDF, I viewed people like you as my opponents, thinking that they were pitiful for reacting to the Soviet or China provocation and appealing for pacifism. The reason why I wanted to be assigned to the Ground SDF in Hokkaido was that the army was in the front line of the fight against the Soviet.

However, when a retired defense bureaucrat who wrote the White Paper on Defense of Japan made a remark that the ‘Soviet threat theory’ was fabricated and that it’s written between the lines of the White Paper. I thought I got easily taken in by such a theory.” (By HORIKIRI Satomi)

圧巻だった元自衛官の発言～「戦争させない」オール埼玉総行動に1万人

 真夏日となった5月最後の日曜日（5/31）。北浦和公園（さいたま市浦和区）で、集団的自衛権行使容認の撤回を求める「オール埼玉総行動」が行われた。横 浜で3万人、沖縄で3万5千人が集まって声をあげたように、埼玉でも戦争反対の意思を示そう！ 1万2千部用意されたプログラムはあっという間になくなり、暑さ以上の熱意がみなぎる総行動となった。元自衛官の泥憲和さん（写真）の話は圧巻だった。 「自衛隊だったとき、私は皆さんのような人たちを敵だと思っていた。ソ連や中国にそそのかされて平和主義を叫んでいるかわいそうな人たちだと。私が北海道 の部隊を希望したのは、ソ連と闘う最前線だったから。その後『防衛白書』を書いた官僚が、退官後に『ソ連脅威論は嘘だった。防衛白書の行間にそう書いてあ る』と発言。自分はまんまと騙されたのだと思った」（堀切さとみ）